A village-tract administrator was stabbed to death by a group of people in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township at about 10 p.m. on July 2, according to his family members.

As the number of COVID-19 infections in Arakan State reached 348 on Thursday evening, a massive cluster of cases involving Border Guard Force (BGF) personnel and their families in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships was blamed for a significant share of the growing caseload.  

Only 16 tonnes of overall weight will be allowed for trucks in Arakan State during the monsoon season, according to the Thandwe District Roads and Bridges Department, which cited concerns about the structural integrity of roads and bridges in the state that require repairs.

Scores of houses in Lekka village, Mrauk-U Township, and Hpar Pyo village in Minbya Township, which were reduced to ashes in clashes between the Myanmar military (Tatmadaw) and Arakan Army (AA), have been rebuilt with the help of the Arakan State military council. 

Trade at the Kanyin Chaung economic zone in Maungdaw town, Arakan State, is being hampered by damaged roads in the area, according to traders. 

Two schools and two classrooms in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township have been temporarily closed from July 1 after four teachers were found to be infected with Covid-19, according to the Maungdaw Township education officer. 

The Sittwe Township Court held another hearing in the case of former Arakan State Chief Minister U Nyi Pu, who has been charged with incitement, via video conferencing.

A lawsuit under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code against three Taungup residents including a member of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) has been dismissed, and the three men walked free on Wednesday along with hundreds of other prisoners released by Myanmar’s military regime. 

Ko Kyaw Than Hlaing, a former chairperson of the Arakan Social Association Japan (ASAJ) who was arrested at Yangon International Airport on June 25, was released on Tuesday.

Another 15 people including six members of a Border Guard Force (BGF) have tested positive for Covid-19 in Maungdaw town as a makeshift medical facility to accommodate an overflow of coronavirus patients was set up at Maungdaw’s Thiri Mingalar Hall this week.  

Hearings before the Thandwe District Court in the cases of nine people charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law, which had been scheduled for June 29, were postponed due to a flareup of Covid-19 cases in the region, according to a lawyer involved in the proceedings. 

Explosive remnants of war (ERWs) should not be concentrated in one place, said Ko Zaw Zaw Tun, general secretary of the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), following reports of a cache of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township.

About 100 tonnes of timber reportedly intended for illegal export to Bangladesh were seized along with eight motorboats at the mouth of Naf River in Maungdaw, Arakan State, over the past three months.

A woman infected with Covid-19 and receiving medical treatment at Maungdaw District People’s Hospital has suffered nerve damage and is reportedly unable to speak.

With no donors for nearly a year, emergency assistance has been needed for internally displaced people (IDPs) at Wah Taung IDP camp, which is located near the banks of the Lemro River in Minbya Township, as IDPs have faced difficulties during the monsoon season, according to camp managers.

A 20-year-old worker at a farm in Mrauk-U District, Arakan State, was found stabbed to death in a field some 5 miles from the town of Mrauk-U on June 27.

Arakan State recorded its first fatality linked to Myanmar’s third wave of coronavirus infections as the total number of cases over recent weeks rose to 119 on Monday, but a state military council spokesman said schools and border trade gates would remain open for the time being. 

A bank employee, a police lance corporal and four staff from the Thandwe Township Court are among the latest cases of Covid-19 reported in Arakan State as the number of cases statewide has surpassed 100 in recent days.   

U Zaw Win Tun, chairman of an interim organising committee of the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), was abducted by an unidentified group of armed men on Monday in Sittwe, with family members expressing concern for his well-being.