“The town was virtually deserted until recently. But there have been many people at markets and on the streets lately,” said a Kyaukphyu resident.

The TNLA said renewed fighting broke out in Kyaukme and Nawnghkio townships and Mogok Township early Tuesday morning, marking a restart of the anti-regime “Operation 1027”.

Fighting between the military and Arakkha Army (AA) is fierce as the ethnic armed group has launched an offensive against the military’s two Thandwe-based battalions simultaneously.

Regime troops are now deployed in 14 villages including Byaing Phyu, where the regime massacred nearly 80 people in late May, bordering Rathedaung and Ponnagyun townships. 

The Central Young Lai Association (CYLA) has blockaded the trade route used to import goods from Lawngtlai in India’s Mizoram to Arakan State through Chin State’s Paletwa Township as of Monday.

Military tensions had been running high in the area for weeks as the regime was accused of violating the ceasefire and shelling TNLA bases, killing some of the ethnic armed group's troops.

Sittwe, Maungdaw, Kyaukphyu, Ann, Taungup, Thandwe, Gwa and Manaung towns remain under the control of the regime, though fighting is taking place in many parts of their eponymous townships.

Junta soldiers have been stationed at Taungup University and set up security outposts around two furlongs from their camp.

Myanmar has a population of more than 51 million people, according to the 2014 national population census, with 42 million representing more than three-quarters of that total. 

A 28-year-old woman from Ma Hnyin Taung Village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township was injured in a landmine blast near her home on Sunday, according to her relatives.

The regime has detained two young men from Ohntaw Village, part of Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township, according to local residents.

Family members say they have not been in contact with the township administrator and a municipal officer from Arakan State’s Taungup Township since their arrest by the Myanmar military about one week ago.

The Arakkha Army (AA) seized the Thandwe Airport in southern Arakan State on June 22, after the regime carefully prepared a defence around the town, according to local people.

Many IDPs are currently suffering from colds and fevers, and they are concerned about the potential for dengue outbreaks under difficult living conditions.

At least 120 farmers from 18 villages in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township say they cannot grow paddy due to the risk of landmines planted by the regime.

Myanmar regime airstrikes and artillery attacks on five villages in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township killed six civilians and injured 10 others from June 20-21, according to local people.

Among the victims were 13 children under the age of 18, while 12 were over the age of 60, the report said. Arakan State stood first with 32 deaths, of which 30 were caused by junta airstrikes, the AAPP said.

Since the end of last year, electricity has been cut off or limited in almost every township in Arakan State due to the intensifying military conflict between Myanmar’s military regime and the Arakkha Army (AA), negatively impacting the socio-economic lives of hundreds of thousands of residents.

There have been a flurry of arbitrary detentions as junta soldiers knock on doors in urban Sittwe purportedly to check for unregistered guests.