While most students in Myanmar attend online classes due to the coronavirus-related closure of schools this year, children and young adults in northern Arakan State are missing out on many educational opportunities as a result of government-imposed restrictions on internet access. 

Souvenir wholesalers and retailers are facing livelihood difficulties as few travellers are visiting Ngapali Beach in Thandwe Township, Arakan State’s premier seaside destination, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rights of minors enshrined in the Child Rights Law are routinely violated in areas of armed conflict across Myanmar including Arakan State, where two years of hostilities have killed scores of civilians and wounded hundreds more, with numerous children among the casualties. 

Where once it was said that hundreds of thousands of people were engaged in artisanal oil extraction in Manaung Township, Arakan State, these days far fewer amateur oilmen are involved in the trade. 

Arakanese youth in Japan staged a demonstration at Tokyo’s Hibiya Park on Sunday afternoon, calling for holding elections in the nine Arakan State townships where voting was cancelled last month. 

Residents of Maungdaw Township’s Shwe Sar village-tract have complained about the collection of more than K200,000 as the cost for installing electricity meter boxes for each household, saying the fee is exorbitant.

When it comes to the India-backed Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project in Arakan and Chin states, it is necessary to clearly communicate its benefits to local people living in the project area, according to Ko Tin Oo, managing director of the Arakan Rivers Network.  

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will implement 11 farming and livestock projects aimed at benefiting victims of conflict in Arakan State, Shan State and Kachin State.

Arrangements are being made to build new houses for those whose homes were burnt down during fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA) over the course of the two-year-old conflict, according to the Arakan State government.

Recent shootings in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township have forced some local residents to flee back to displacement camps less than a month after they returned to their homes from there.  

An orphanage in the Arakan State capital Sittwe has been facing difficulties during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of donations, the facility said. 

More than 860 people stranded in Yangon during the COVID-19 period have been transported back to Arakan State and 2,500 more are still awaiting return to their home state, according to the groups helping them. 

A 12-year-old at Hnget Chaung internally displaced person (IDP) camp in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State, was allegedly gang-raped late last month, according to the girl’s family. 

Due to instability and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic and international travellers to Arakan State have dropped by nearly 25% this year compared with 2019, according to figures from the state’s Directorate of Hotels and Tourism.  

The Defence Ministry has denied allegations that Myanmar’s military (aka Tatmadaw) is responsible for the deaths and detention of civilians between February and April in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township. 

“There were not such damages to the paddy in the past. This year, we have the paddy grains but they are of poor quality and farmers are losing,” said U Khin Maung Than from Kyun Gya village in Manaung Township, Arakan State. 

A military tribunal in Arakan State will render a final verdict on December 11 after three soldiers admitted to raping a woman in U Gar village, Rathedaung Township, according to a lawyer who is assisting the victim. 

Visually impaired masseuses and masseurs from the Mettarwadi Education Center for the Blind in Sittwe say they have fallen on hard times as the massage therapy-based income model that they rely on has dried up amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The Arakan State government is collecting a list of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the state to help arrange for safe returns to their places of origin as there have been no reports of clashes since Myanmar’s November 8 general election, according to the state government.