The Myanmar Journalist Network (MJN) on September 27 urged the government to lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders affecting news organisations at a time, the network contends, when an unrestrained fourth estate is more important than ever. 

Though trust is essential in ongoing peace talks, it is impossible to build trust so long as ethnic armed groups negotiate while holding on to notions of “armed struggle,” according to Major-General Zaw Min Tun of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team.   

A resident of Kyaukgusu village in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township was taken from his home and detained by security personnel on September 27, family members said.

The body of a Mrauk-U Township resident recently detained by the military was viewed at the local hospital a day after he was taken into Tatmadaw custody, according to his family members.  

The Tatmadaw has not made arbitrary arrests of locals in northern Arakan State villages where hostilities between the military and the Arakan Army (AA) are ongoing, Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team said at a press conference on September 26.

A three-wheeled motorbike driver from Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, was arrested by the military at about 8 a.m. on September 27, according to a lawmaker and family members of the detainee.

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.