With border trade with Bangladesh suspended due to COVID-19 five months ago and likely to remain that way indefinitely, workers who had depended on such transnational commerce for their livelihoods are struggling to make ends meet. 

The United Nations has urged the Myanmar Parliament to pass comprehensive legislation to protect women and prevent violence against them. 

The chairman of the Democratic Party of National Politics (DPNP), a partner of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), blamed this month’s landslide election victory for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) on low political awareness among the Myanmar people. 

Members of Myanmar ethnic minorities staged a demonstration in front of the United Nations office in Tokyo, Japan, on November 26, demanding that Myanmar authorities release students arrested for participating in protests against conflict and human rights violations in Arakan State. 

At least three seismic faults in Arakan State could cause strong earthquakes with the potential to trigger tsunamis, warned Dr. Myo Thant, secretary of the Myanmar Earthquake Committee.

More than 1,650 villages in Arakan State remain without 24-hour electricity as the current government’s term nears its close, according to the state’s Electric Power Engineer Office.

A National League for Democracy (NLD) letter inviting the cooperation of ethnic people has not arrived to certain ethnic political parties, with delays due to COVID-19, according to NLD spokesperson Dr. Myo Nyunt. 

Arakanese people, who have recently returned to their homes from displacement camps following a de-escalation of fighting in the region, say they hope present conditions are not just a lull before another round of renewed clashes. 

A resident of Padar village in Arakan State’s Taungup Township was taken by a group of masked men armed with sticks and machetes while he was returning from Taungup town after withdrawing cash from a bank, according to family members and a village administrator.

More than 2,000 tonnes of illegal timber were seized in Arakan State from October to November 23, the State Forest Department said. 

An orphanage named “Metta Yeik” is being built in Myebon Township’s Kanhtaunggyi town to look after children orphaned by fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA), according to the shelter’s construction committee.

The Arakan State election subcommission is ready to hold elections in townships in Arakan State where elections were cancelled if the Union Election Commission (UEC) decides to hold the election, said U Thurein Htut, secretary of the local election body.  

Residents of Darlet village-tract in Arakan State’s Ann Township have called for the reopening of roads and waterways that have been closed for one year, also asking that the transport of commodities be fully allowed.

The National League for Democracy (NLD) government is likely to resume full mobile internet services in northern Arakan State if security improves in the area, the ruling party’s spokesman Dr. Myo Nyunt told DMG. 

Thirteen children died and 56 were severely injured in Myanmar due to landmines and other remnants of war (UXO) in the nine months from January to September 2020, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

Myanmar’s Fisheries Department will adjust its annual three-month inshore fishing ban in coastal areas including Arakan State, in an effort to replenish marine fisheries resources.

The Arakan Rakkhita Group (ARG) has offered to provide free ploughing services if internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State’s Sittwe Township would like to grow winter crops.

Public health advocates in Sittwe launched a mask and face shield distribution campaign at seven busy junctions in the Arakan State capital on November 23 as the numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths are once again on the rise in the state. 

Ten human rights organisations released a statement on Monday urging the immediate and unconditional release of students across the country who have been arrested for protesting rights abuses in Arakan State, with the joint communiqué also demanding the dropping of charges against them.