Express boats running between Manaung and Taungup townships resumed services on December 18 after being suspended for four months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to operators of the passenger vessels. 

A nine-member advisory group was formed on December 11 to lead the implementation of measures aimed at ensuring the safety and security of journalists across Myanmar. 

Government and military representatives had pre-negotiated talks before the latter held recent discussions with the Arakan Army (AA), according to U Hla Maung Shwe, a senior adviser to the government’s Peace Commission.  

Arakanese civil society organisations have accused Myanmar’s military chief of intentionally excluding the ethnic Kaman when he enumerated several groups indigenous to Arakan State in a message commemorating Arakan State Day on December 15. 

The heads of Myanmar’s civilian and military leadership are being urged to go beyond the felicitous words of their recent Arakan State Day messages to materially better the lives of the state’s residents; for starters, critics say, by restoring internet access to the hundreds of thousands of people who are functionally denied connectivity by the government. 

A spokesman for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) has thrown cold water on prospects for promptly holding make-up elections in Arakan State constituencies where voting was cancelled in last month’s general election, when a majority of the state was disenfranchised.  

In its latest Myanmar Economic Monitor report, the World Bank said the country’s poverty rate could increase by nearly 5 percentage points due to ongoing restrictions put in place to curb the spread of COVID-19. 

Internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering at a monastery in the Arakan State capital Sittwe are facing livelihood difficulties as a lockdown of the religious complex, which is currently doubling as a displacement camp, has been extended after a second COVID-19 case was detected there last week. 

Goods worth more than K1 billion ($734,000) that are intended for export to Bangladesh are stranded in the Arakan State capital Sittwe as border trade remains suspended due to COVID-19, according to people involved in the Sittwe border trade.    

Some pagodas, temples and other shrines of eminence in Arakan State are found littered with garbage during high-traffic periods of the year due to the undisciplined behaviour of pilgrims and other visitors, according to locals and members of the pagodas’ boards of trustees. 

Kaman people are protesting a message sent by Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing, on Arakan State Day 2020, which they note failed to include their group among a list of state ethnicities enumerated.

Residents of Chin State’s Paletwa Township say they are facing livelihood difficulties as they have received no response nearly a month after asking the military and Chin State government to reopen waterways and motorways in the township.  

The Arakan State Parliament is scheduled to convene the current class of lawmakers’ final sitting in the second week of January 2021, when the state government will be expected to answer remaining questions raised by MPs, according to U Mya Than, deputy speaker of the state legislature. 

Three healthcare workers at Tat Taung cottage hospital in Arakan State’s Ann Township have tested positive for COVID-19, and the facility has instituted quarantine procedures since December 15, according to Dr. Nyi Nyi Aung, the hospital superintendent.

Local residents of Aung Thazi village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township said they dare not return to their village as Tatmadaw troops are stationed near their village. 

More than 130 signatures demanding the release of politician Dr. Aye Maung and the writer Wai Hun Aung, who were both sentenced to 20 years in prison for sedition and high treason in 2019, were sent to top government leaders on December 15.  

The Taungup Township Court on December 15 examined three prosecution witnesses in the case of four men including an ex-chair of the township Development Affairs Committee and a local Arakan National Party vice chair, who face terrorism charges for allegedly illegal ties to the Arakan Army.

Domestic flights, which have been suspended for three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will resume services as of December 16, the Ministry of Health and Sports announced on December 14.

A total of 64 candidates who contested the November 8 election in Arakan State will lose their K300,000 ($216) insurance premium because they did not reach a required votes threshold, according to figures from the Arakan State election subcommission.