Four Arakanese students behind bars for months while on trial for their anti-war activism are struggling to eat what they say are substandard meals being provided to them at Sittwe Prison. 

Seven people including the chairman of a philanthropic organisation in Taungup, Arakan State, are currently being questioned following their arrest earlier this month, according to the Arakan State Administration Council. 

A resident of Lamu village-tract in Arakan State’s Taungup Township was abducted by two uniformed military personnel and two plainclothes policemen on June 18, according to family members of the detainee. 

The United Nations in Myanmar on Thursday expressed alarm at recent acts of violence that it says illustrate “a sharp deterioration of the human rights environment” across the country. 

Twenty-one cases brought under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law and involving allegedly illegal ties to the formerly terrorist-designated Arakan Army have been dropped since the ethnic armed group was de-listed, according to the Arakan State military council.  

The United League of Arakan (ULA) has sent a message of condolence to the late Venerable Tikkhindiya, who passed away at the Yadana Bodhi Monastery in Yangon’s Insein Township on June 14.

Two women suffered severed limbs in two separate landmine encounters on back-to-back days in western Myanmar this week.

The Karen National Union (KNU) announced on June 16 that it would investigate allegations that the Karen National Defence Organization (KNDO) killed 25 civilians working on a construction site in Myawaddy District, Kayin State.

Farmers in Arakan State and locals who depend on the forest for their livelihoods are concerned about the dangers of landmines this rainy season and are calling for more effective efforts to address the issue of landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERWs). 

Fish and prawns from northern Arakan State are being sold at auction in the state capital Sittwe because they can no longer easily be sent to Yangon and other parts of Myanmar.

The All Arakanese Solidarity Committee (AASC) is providing free education at the Shwe Zedi monastic education school in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, focusing on students from camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) who will sit the matriculation exam next year. 

Vendors at the Sittwe Myoma Market have been relocated to a new bazaar built near the BXT port and not far from their old selling grounds, according to U Than Tun, a member of the Arakan State military council.

Border trade gates are being systematically managed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Arakan State, according to U Hla Thein, information officer for the Arakan State military council. 

Ten people including the younger brother and sister of Arakan Army (AA) chief Major-General Twan Mrat Naing, as well as the AA leader’s brother-in-law, were released, according to a lawyer involved in the case.

There were 94 cases of dengue fever in Arakan State this year from January to June 15, according to the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH).

Due to heavy rains in recent days, some areas in Arakan State’s Thandwe and Taungup townships have faced flooding, according to locals.

With basic education schools open nationwide since June 1 following months shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 97% of students in Arakan State are attending classes, according to the Arakan State education office.

More than 200 children from Pauk Taw (Muslim) village in Minbya Township, Arakan State, have recovered from diarrhoea following an outbreak there, according to the Minbya Township Public Health Department. 

It will be very difficult for internally displaced people (IDPs) to stay put in the rainy season this year if the temporary tents that were built in previous years are not rebuilt in time, said managers of IDP camps in Arakan State.