Pilgrims and locals have expressed concern as the Myanmar military and police are conducting security checks along the historical Sandawshin Pagoda Road in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State.

The local administration in Mya Yeik Kyun village-tract, part of Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township, is charging people K1,500 to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, with the money ostensibly going to pay for the needs of healthcare staff administering the shots. 

At least eight people in Arakan State — six from Thandwe District and one each from Mrauk-U and Kyaukphyu districts — have been arrested on suspicion of People’s Defence Force (PDF) affiliations and charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law. 

A total of K597 million ($334,645) in loans have not been repaid in the eight years since the Emerald Green Project was launched for rural populations in 2014-15, according to the state’s Department of Rural Development (DRD).

A series of thefts and robberies have taken place in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, with residents in some wards feeling compelled to hire nighttime guards to protect their neighbourhoods.

Up to seven educational employees have been arrested by the military council for joining the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), according to the General Strike Committee of Basic Education Workers (Thayawady). 

A local man has been arrested because his brother unwittingly transported a defecting member of the Border Guard Police in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, said the detained man’s family. 

Two education personnel from Thayetchaung Township, Tanintharyi Region, who had joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), died of poor health while in hiding, the interim Thayetchaung Township Basic Education Board said. 

Local farmers whose farmlands are involved in the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan State, are worried that they will become occupiers. 

With all witnesses having been examined in the case of a young author from Pan Maw village in Mrauk-U Township accused of illegal ties to the People’s Defence Force (PDF), both sides’ lawyers will plead at the next court hearing, according to the defendant’s legal council.

Myanmar’s military regime on December 1 brought Anti-Corruption Law charges against the country’s former deputy minister for Construction, as well as three directors-general and a former Bago Region minister for Transportation.

More than 20 residents of Lekka village in Mrauk-U Township who were arrested on suspicion of having links to the Arakan Army (AA) were arraigned on December 3, and a second appeal was presented to the court as the presiding judge did not rule in the case, according to a lawyer. 

The Arakan State regime council is keeping a watchful eye on motorways, waterways and air travel to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, said U Hla Thein, spokesperson for the state’s military government, as concerns grow over the global rise of a new coronavirus variant, Omicron.

At least 1,300 people have been killed in Myanmar since the February 1 coup, according to a press release from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) on December 1.

Fires blamed on Tatmadaw troops have again decimated neighbourhoods in the town of Thantlang, Chin State, with dozens of homes, churches and other buildings burnt down on November 27. 

A man who was attacked by a wild elephant in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, is in need of medical treatment, family members said. 

With swine breeding in decline in Arakan State, the price of young pigs has increased nearly fivefold compared with two years ago, swine breeders said. 

A total of 573 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), including several senior party figures, were arrested and 13 were killed in the 10 months between when Myanmar’s military seized power on February 1 and November 30, the NLD Central Working Committee said in a statement on December 1. 

Five former Arakan State ministers, including former Chief Minister U Nyi Pu, were formally charged under Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law on December 1.