Over 4,000 local residents of more than 20 villages in the Daletchaung village-tract of Arakan State’s Ann Township are finding it difficult to bring in food and medical supplies as Myanmar’s military has blocked both water and road routes.  

The National United Party of Arakan (NUPA), led by the prominent revolutionary leader Major-General Khaing Razar until his assassination in 1998, has been disbanded and merged with the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA), the NUPA announced in a statement on December 12. 

The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has no plans to file complaints about the November 8 election results in Arakan State, according to the state USDP chairman, Dr. San Shwe.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has provided about 3,000 blankets to internally displaced people (IDPs) at IDP camps in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, to help them stay warm during the cool season, according to residents. 

A case has been opened after a 12-year-old girl from Nget Chaung Muslim IDP camp in Arakan State’s Pauktaw Township was raped last month, but the suspects remain at large nearly two weeks after the alleged incident took place, according to the Pauktaw Myoma police station.  

A 14-year-old boy from Ramree Township, Arakan State, who faces terrorism charges after being arrested by the Tatmadaw last month, was released on bail Thursday and requires medical treatment for injuries apparently sustained or untreated while in military custody, according to family. 

A recent Tatmadaw request to the Union Election Commission (UEC) to allow the former to copy electoral documents from the latter does not concern the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), said a USDP leader at a press conference in Nay Pyi Taw on December 11.  

A recent in-person meeting of Tatmadaw and Arakan Army representatives in the autonomous Wa region is “a good prospect,” said Dr. Myo Nyunt, a spokesperson for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD).   

A military tribunal in Arakan State’s Sittwe Township has sentenced three soldiers to 20 years in prison with hard labour for raping a 36-year-old woman in U Gar village, Rathedaung Township, earlier this year.   

Following formal outreach from Myanmar’s incumbent and incoming National League for Democracy (NLD) government, 14 of 48 ethnic political parties that were addressed in that communique had replied indicating support for the shared agenda described in the November 12 letter as of December 10, according to Dr. Myo Nyunt, spokesperson for the NLD. 

Lawmakers and civil society organisations took the occasion of Human Rights Day on December 10 to call for an end to human rights violations in Arakan State, including unlawful civilian arrests and in several cases a subsequent lack of information on the detainees’ whereabouts.  

More than 50 civil society organisations called for amending laws that pose a threat to human rights in a joint statement released to coincide with Human Rights Day, observed each year globally on December 10.  

Internally displaced people in Sittwe say they are concerned about what their futures might hold after a monk from a monastery where IDPs in the Arakan State capital are taking refuge tested positive for COVID-19.

Women’s rights activists have called on the government to redouble its efforts to combat violence against women and do justice for victims of violence. 

Real estate prices in the Arakan State capital Sittwe have risen by up to three times their going rates of five years ago, and the local government has a responsibility to keep prices in check, said U San Shar Maung, secretary of the Arakan State Real Property Development Association. 

Three youths arrested over a human rights demonstration in the Arakan State capital Sittwe on Thursday morning were released on bail at about 5 p.m. the same day, according to the detainees.

Police have allegedly threatened villagers in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township who sought to report missing persons for a second time after their family members were reportedly detained by the military in March, with their whereabouts still unknown. 

The Union Election Commission (UEC) has not divulged anything about prospects for holding make-up elections in Arakan State townships where voting was cancelled on November 8, with no signs of the groundwork that would be required if elections were to be held in these areas in the near-term, said the Arakan Election Monitoring and Observation Consortium.       

A vendor headed to sell pork at Wai Lar Taung village in northern Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township came across members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on December 9 and his motorbike was torched, according to U Kyaw Maung Thein, the administrator of neighbouring Khamaungseik village.