With tens of thousands of paddy acres going uncultivated in recent years due to conflict, Arakan State consumers are facing higher rice prices at the same time that the state’s rice production has fallen, according to U Shwe Tun Aung, chair of the Arakan State Rice Federation. 

With growing recognition that higher-level skills must be built around the information age and technologies of the 21st century, civil society organisations and volunteer groups in Arakan State are providing training and courses to Arakanese youths on topics such as computer literacy, English-language, human and women’s rights, and federalism. 

Family members are hoping for the release of nine locals from Taungup Township arrested more than a year ago and charged for their alleged affiliation with the Arakan Army (AA). 

Four wild elephants drowned in a lake in Aung Zeya village, Maungdaw Township, Arakan State on June 4, according to a former village administrator. 

Four men were killed in a bomb blast at about 1 a.m. on June 4 in Sanpya ward, Ponnagyun town, Arakan State, according to the ward’s 100-household head. 

Cargo trucks have been temporarily relocated to a bus terminal under construction in the Arakan State capital Sittwe’s Shwepyithar ward, according to U Than Tun, a member of the Arakan State Administration Council.

A person allegedly involved in a kidnapping case in the town of Maungdaw, Arakan State, has been arrested, according to local authorities.

Parents and locals in Arakan State’s Taungup Township are keeping wary eyes on their children as they returned to school this week for the first time in nearly a year amid the fraught socio-political dynamics of post-coup Myanmar. 

A total of nine childrend have died from diarrhoea in Pauk Taw (Muslim) village in Minbya Township, Arakan State, and the number of people affected by the disease has exceeded 200.

Developers in Arakan State say they have faced difficulties due to the country’s faltering financial system and rising construction materials costs.

Three more men who returned from Bangladesh to Sittwe tested positive for COVID-19 on June 1, according to the Public Health Department in Arakan State. 

The Myanmar regime has since May 28 restricted access to the upper reaches of the Kaladan River, which hosts the main road linking Paletwa in Chin State to Kyauktaw Township in Arakan State, and is the land route leading to Samee and Matupi in Chin State, according to locals. 

The eight were arraigned at the Western District Court of Yangon Region on June 2, but Police Major Tint Shwe filed a motion to dismiss the case, according to defence lawyer U Aung Kyaw Sein. 

U Hla Thein, a spokesman and attorney-general for the Arakan State Administration Council, said 17 cases of children under the age of 18 arrested on suspicion of illicit ties to the Arakan Army (AA) were dropped in May. 

The Thandwe Township military council has ordered people in Thandwe to submit overnight guest lists, according to residents. 

 Arakan State News Summary (May 22-31, 2021)

The Tatmadaw regime announced on May 30 that it would suspend all military activities from June 1 to 30, “except the period when security and administrative machinery of the government in addition to State defence and administrative measures are attacked and encroached on,” as the junta prepares to reopen basic education schools on June 1.

Seven children have died from diarrhea in Pauk Taw (Muslim) village of Nagara village-tract in Minbya Township over the past five days, according to residents.

Residents of Pyar Kywein village in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan State, have demanded that the local bridge be repaired in a timely manner due to the collapse of its wooden beams.