A weekly mobile library campaign is being held in Arakan State’s Sittwe, Minbya, Rathedaung, Kanhtaukgyi and Ramree towns to foster greater interest in literature among young people.

Two staff from the Maungdaw District General Administration Department in Arakan State tested positive for COVID-19 on June 20.

Dr. Soe Win Paing, assistant director of the Arakan State Health Department, has warned the public to be mindful of the continuing threat posed by the coronavirus. 

Four embassies in Yangon and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) used International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict on June 19 “to unequivocally condemn acts of sexual violence by all armed actors, and those associated with them, in Myanmar.” 

Some 20 people were injured in a three-vehicle crash near Kin Taung and Pauk Pyin villages in Taungup Township, Arakan State, on June 18.

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.