Arakan State News Summary (May 15-21, 2021)

The Arakan State Administration Council says a dumpsite at Akyeittawkone hill in the state capital Sittwe will be relocated to Hmansi Cemetery from June 1.

Of the people who returned from Bangladesh to Sittwe on May 21, six men tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Arakan State Public Health Department.

Wave Money, one of Myanmar’s top mobile financial services providers, said the company would take action against agents who overcharge on service fees.

Public housing projects are being developed for civil servants in some Arakan State townships, but in Sittwe it is difficult to build such housing due to land shortages, according to the Department of Urban and Housing Development.

Basic education schools in Arakan State are ready to reopen on June 1, according to the Arakan State Education Officer’s office.

Donors’ help is needed to rebuild houses that were destroyed by fire in Kan Htaung Gyi village, Myebon Township, on May 20, according to a volunteer group that is assisting the fire victims.

The Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) will not attend the second meeting of the junta-reconstituted Union Election Commission (UEC) with registered political parties. 

Fourteen houses were destroyed and 69 people left homeless after a fire broke out in the southern ward of Kan Htaung Gyi village in Myebon Township at about 3 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Kan Htaung Gyi Fire Services Department. 

A young woman sheltering at the Gandhari camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State, was raped on the morning of May 20, according to family members of the victim.

A missing man from Ranaungpyin village in northern Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, was found dead five days later, according to the village administrator.

A bridge built over a mangrove forest at Mya Padamyar Park near Ngapali Beach in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township is reportedly attracting many visitors.

A 20-year-old returning from Bangladesh tested positive for COVID-19 in the Arakan State capital Sittwe on May 18, according to the state’s Public Health Department, becoming the sixth case of its kind reported in recent days. 

About 33 new houses have been rebuilt at Kyet Uwa village in Chin State’s Paletwa Township, where some houses were engulfed by recent fire, according to villagers. 

The sustainability of some temples of the ancient Arakanese city of Mrauk-U is uncertain, said Daw Khin Than, chairperson of the Mrauk-U Cultural Heritage Conservation Association. 

Concerns have been raised by locals in Arakan State following reports of military weapons tests in the region. 

Promotion examinations are held annually but were not held in 2019 and 2020, according to educational staff.

The 5^th anniversary of Mro National Day was commemorated in Banbwi Mro village, Ponnagyun Township of Arakan State, on the morning of March 18, said U Zani Phyu, chair of the Mro Literature and Culture Association.

The Department of Archeology and National Museum in Sittwe is conducting a survey in an effort to preserve structures that are more than a century old in Arakan State, from private buildings and monasteries to Christian churches, Hindu temples and mosques.