Camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in conflict-wracked Arakan State are at risk of rice shortages as provisions of the staple grain expected from the government have not arrived in recent weeks, according to camp managers.

The number of medical staff infected with COVID-19 since an upsurge in Arakan State cases began in mid-August and through September 25 stood at almost 70, according to the Arakan State Public Health Department.

The owner of the Myint Myat Maung private boarding school in Sittwe’s Baukthisu Ward is likely to be prosecuted under the Natural Disaster Management Law for allegedly operating without a permit amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Campaign signboards for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in three Taungup Township villages were destroyed on September 25, according to township NLD members. 

Military operations are being launched to facilitate the escape of security personnel detained by the Arakan Army (AA), according to Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team.

A baby girl from Anaukpyin (Muslim) village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township was wounded by a stray bullet on September 25, according to family members of the victim and the local village administrator.

Hundreds more internally displaced people (IDPs) have recently arrived at relief camps in Buthidaung town, Arakan State, after Kuntaing village was all but emptied of its residents following twin landmine blasts and a gunfight nearby.

The families of 18 people from Kyauktaw Township’s Tinma village who were arrested by the military in March say they continue to worry about their missing loved ones’ safety as it has been almost seven months without information about them. 

Five people who were arrested after entering Arakan State’s Thandwe Township in an ambulance on September 23, at a time of heightened movement restrictions due to COVID-19, are maintaining that they informed local authorities of their travel plans in advance. 

Eleven people arrested by the military this week in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, were freed on the morning of September 24, according to locals.

People in Chin State’s Paletwa Township are facing shortages of rice and other foodstuffs, according to local residents, as COVID-19 continues to disrupt travel and supply lines in the region.  

Locals in the Yan Thit Gyi village-tract are calling for the reappointment of their recently sacked administrator, who was dismissed after quarrelling with an information officer for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Ramree Township, Arakan State. 

The Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC) is distributing radios to internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State townships with limited access to information amid the coronavirus pandemic and ongoing armed conflict in the region.

The number of eligible voters in Arakan State increased by nearly 4,000 during a recent second round of voter registration efforts, according to the state election subcommission. 

Seven undocumented people who entered Arakan State’s Thandwe Township from Yangon by ambulance were arrested on September 23, according to a source from the district COVID-19 control and response committee. 

Thousands of people in Rathedaung Township were displaced from their homes on September 23 due to military operations in Arakan State, even as COVID-19 infections continue to rise throughout the region and related restrictions on movement remain in effect.

About 20 residents of Thayettapin village in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, were arrested by a military column at about 9 a.m. on September 23, according to locals.

Three Arakanese student leaders detained over an anti-government protest earlier this month will be charged under the Peaceful Assembly Law in a legal change from earlier indications that they would be prosecuted using the Natural Disaster Management Law.