Local youth organisations in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U District have provided basic food items to support families and members of the grassroots who are struggling to make ends meet during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The number of Covid-19 infections and deaths reportedly dropped in most Arakan State townships this week, with the exceptions of Gwa and Kyaukphyu townships.

Farmers in Arakan State say they are facing difficulties as fertiliser prices have increased by as much as 50% this year.

A low-pressure area in the Bay of Bengal crossed Auritha beach in India before it became a depression and as a consequence, Arakan State will get more rain over the next two days, according to U Hla Tun, deputy director of the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

People with disabilities in Arakan State are facing difficulties with their livelihoods and medicines during the third wave of Covid-19, the Disabled People’s Association (DPA) in Arakan State said.

Camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Arakan State capital Sittwe are in need of basic foodstuffs, according to managers of the camps.

The Gandaryi camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township was reportedly locked down after a 21-year-old woman from the camp was found to be infected with Covid-19 on August 18. 

Despite the depletion of forest resources in Arakan State and the need for timely conservation efforts, illegal logging has been increasing during Myanmar’s current political unrest, said Dr. Maung Maung Kyi, chairman of the Rakhine Coastal Region Conservation Association (RCA). 

More than 1,000 people in Myanmar have been killed by security forces since the military coup on February 1, according to data compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Passenger buses and ferryboats plying routes between townships in Arakan State are allowed to operate in accordance with the Covid-19 rules and regulations, Arakan State Minister for Road Transport Police Col. Thet Lwin told DMG.

Civil society organisations in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, are scheduled to supply basic food items such as rice, cooking oil and iodised salt to camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in the township for up to six months. 

An automobile crash occurred on Tuesday morning involving a crane truck and a vehicle from the Ywarma ward social welfare association in Gwa Township, which was on its way to Thandwe town to pick up oxygen needed by their township’s hospital. 

The administrator of Padin (Muslim) village in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, was abducted by an unidentified group in the early hours of August 17. 

A local from Oo Soon Taung village in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township was severely injured when he stepped on a landmine while tending his cattle on Tuesday afternoon, according to family members of the victim. 

A temporary suspension of aid deliveries from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State has been resolved, the ICRC told DMG on August 16. 

An 8-year-old boy from Wegyi village in Arakan State’s Taungup Township is suffering from bone cancer and his family say they are in need of financial assistance to get proper treatment for their son.

Dozens of gold bars and K200 million ($122,000) in cash were confiscated at a checkpoint in Maungdaw town, Arakan State, after they were found being transported by a rickshaw on Sunday afternoon.

Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Arakan State Department of Public Health, has urged the public not to be complacent about coronavirus-related regulations despite a drop in the infection rate and related death toll in the state over recent days. 

Some online money transfer service providers anticipate challenges this week as banks are shuttered at the instruction of the military government.