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.

Eight human rights groups have called on the international community to take action on behalf of victims of torture by the Myanmar military, using the occasion of International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26 to do so.

As more and more cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Arakan State, parents are worried about their children’s health, according to students’ parents.

A police lieutenant from the Anti-Narcotics Task Force in Maungdaw and three family members of a schoolteacher in Thandwe who earlier tested positive for Covid-19 were among six new cases of the virus reported in the two Arakan State townships on June 25-26.

Ko Kyaw Than Hlaing, a former chairperson of the Arakan Social Association-Japan (ASAJ), was arrested at Yangon International Airport on Friday upon returning to Myanmar from Japan, according to family members.

Four Arakanese students who were charged under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code and Section 29 of the Disaster Management Law for staging an anti-war protest last year again appeared before the Sittwe Township Court on June 25.