Salt farmers in Arakan State are struggling as the price of sea salt has declined by more than half and demand is slowing.

A festival at the Mt. Kyauktaw Pagoda in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township will be held this year, after the annual religious gathering was cancelled the past two years due to fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army (AA).

As of April 19, a total of 70 journalists have been arrested since Myanmar’s military staged a coup on February 1, with only 32 of them released from detention so far, Burma News International (BNI) said on Friday.

Some Kyawt Paik fishing entrepreneurs have suspended their businesses as they are facing losses when fish and prawns do not fetch good prices, fishermen in Thandwe Township said.

The trials of Kyaukseik and Lekka villagers who were charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law continued as scheduled on Friday, but the court did not conduct any formal hearing of the cases.

University students in Arakan State are reportedly in discussions about whether or not they should attend when classes resume later this year.

The suspected murder of a 12-year-old girl in the Arakan State capital Sittwe remains unsolved some 10 months after the tragedy, according to relatives of the victim.

With an uptick in visitors to Thandwe Township’s Ngapali Beach due to the Thingyan holiday, some shops have reopened after months shuttered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Returning displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State say they lack the seeds, machinery and other inputs needed to grow paddy this rainy season.

There have been no new clashes between the Tatmadaw and members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance after the coalition — consisting of the Arakan Army, Ta’ang National Liberation Army and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army — attacked a police outpost in northern Shan State on April 10, according to the TNLA information officer. 

Border trade in Arakan State, which was suspended for more than 10 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been allowed to resume, according to U Than Tun, a member of the Arakan State Administration Council. 

The secretary of the All Arakan Students’ & Youths’ Congress said the AASYC sees the recently formed National Unity Government (NUC) as having the potential to gather the forces of anti-dictatorship throughout Myanmar under one banner.

Ahead of the rainy season, displacement camp managers have invited donations for repair work at the temporary settlements they oversee in Myebon and Kyauktaw townships.

An Arakan State-based environmental organisation has called for immediate action to conserve forest resources in the state.

Basic education high schools in Arakan State are ready to resume, said U Tin Thein, head of the education department in Arakan State.

The number of paddy fields where monsoon paddy cannot be grown is increasing annually in Arakan State, where farming is the main business amid a shortage of labour.

The European Union (EU)’s latest sanctions on members of the military regime’s governing body, the State Administration Council (SAC), will not have serious impacts on the Arakan National Party (ANP), said party spokesman U Pe Than. ANP senior member Daw Aye Nu Sein, who is on the SAC, is included on the latest sanctions list.

A total of 400 houses have been built for fire-affected residents of Tin Nyo IDP camp, said the author Wai Hun Aung, who is providing help with the rebuilding effort after hundreds of shelters burned to the ground in a blaze last month. 

Overcoming the challenges posed by regional conflict and the COVID-19 pandemic, border trade began this month at the Kanyin Chaung economic zone on the outskirts of Maungdaw town, Arakan State.