With Arakan State consumers showing a growing preference for salt imported from abroad, salt makers in the state are facing losses, according to the Salt Manufacturers Association.

More than 1,200 students at IDP camps in the Chin State towns of Paletwa and Samee are in need of classrooms, according to people providing aid for the displaced. 

Concerns are growing about a perceived illegal inflow of people to Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township from Bangladesh as the number of coronavirus cases at the refugee camps in the neighbouring country continues to rise. 

A man shot dead by the Tatmadaw while performing what was described as “law enforcement activities” near Myothit Market in the Arakan State town of Ponnagyun is said to have suffered from mental illness, according to residents. 

A military officer and another soldier were stabbed and beaten, and the latter was abducted on June 11 in Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township, according to residents, a local lawmaker and the Tatmadaw.

A total of six Arakan National Party (ANP) members in Taungup Township, Arakan State, have been arrested and charged under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law in recent weeks. 

Three villagers were injured and two others were detained by the Tatmadaw from June 8-10 after gunfire was heard in Apaukwa village, Kyauktaw Township, villagers said.

The Manaung Township General Administration Department released a regional order on June 9 to protect coral reef naturally grown along the coast of the township’s Pyin Kauk village.

Gunfire just after midnight on June 10 killed a woman in her 80s and injured four others including a police officer in Amyint Kyun village, Sittwe Township, according to residents.

A civilian from the town of Paletwa, Chin State, was injured by gunfire on June 9, according to family members of the victim.

Muslims sheltering at Kyauktalone IDP camp in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township are asking to be resettled at their original places of residence; in doing so, they have rejected government arrangements to resettle at a site two furlongs away from the Kyauktalone camp.

The chair of the Arakan National Party (ANP) in Taungup Township’s Maei town, U Myo Lwin aka Maung Kae, was arrested by the Tatmadaw in the early hours of June 9, family members said.

The families of 18 villagers taken by the Tatmadaw from Tinma village in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, are increasingly concerned for their well-being as relatives remain largely without information about the detainees’ status. 

Residents of Dar Lat Chaung village-tract in Arakan State’s Ann Township are said to be facing difficulties because the Tatmadaw has reportedly banned them from transporting rice into the area.

A total of 13 people were charged in Arakan State last month under Counter-Terrorism Law provisions, for which some could face up to life in prison if found guilty, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. 

Mosquito-borne illnesses are a growing concern expressed among the in-charges of camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State as the rainy season settles in.

The number of domestic and foreign visitors to Arakan State is on pace for its third consecutive year of decline as armed conflict between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army continues to batter tourism, joined this year by the COVID-19 pandemic, said the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism in Arakan State.

Commodity prices have soared in Paletwa Township, Chin State, where locals are also facing shortages of household items as all major transport routes leading into the area have been cut off, according to residents.

The Food Security Working Group (FSWG), a nongovernmental organisation involved in food security-related issues in Myanmar, has demanded the release of a man from Bu Shwe Maw village, Taungup Township, who was abducted last month.