Ahead of a planned return to the classroom for high schoolers on July 21, the National Network for Education Reform (NNER) has highlighted public concerns that have arisen as coronavirus infections continue to rise in Myanmar and across the globe.

A 66-year-old man from Nga Tauk Tu Chay village in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, was severely injured after stepping on a landmine on July 8, according to local residents.

Four people from Zin Chaung village in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township were detained by a contingent of military and police personnel early Tuesday morning, with two of them released from police custody at about noon the same day, family members said. 

The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) forced from their homes by ongoing conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army has surged by more than 34,000 in one month, according to the Rakhine Ethnics Congress (REC), which put the total IDP tally at 190,708. 

Arakan State saw the highest number of civilian deaths linked to armed conflict nationwide last year, according to the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security (MIPS).

A young man from Chet Phaut village in Taungup Township, Arakan State, was arrested by the Tatmadaw more than a month ago, but with no information yet made available as to his circumstances, family members say they are worried about him.

A special Court of Inquiry team has been established to review events at northern Arakan State’s Chutpyin and Maung Nu villages that occurred in August 2017, when terrorist attacks by Muslim militants were met with a brutal counter-insurgency campaign. 

Clashes between government forces and ethnic armed group signatories to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) are not of serious concern, the vice chair of the Union-level Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC-U) insisted at a committee meeting on July 7. 

Supplemental agricultural lending to help offset challenges posed by COVID-19 has begun in six Arakan State townships, but some farmers say they have not yet received the loans.

The Tatmadaw True News Information Team has said that the military will bring Counter-Terrorism Law charges against three men recently arrested near the Kisapanadi Bridge in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State.

Parts of a male corpse were found on the bank of the Kaladan River near Kisapanadi Bridge in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, at about 8 a.m. on July 7, according to locals.

Eight villagers who are currently being detained at the Dhanyawadi Naval Base in Kyaukphyu Township, Arakan State, are facing charges under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law, according to the Kyaukphyu Myoma police station.

Domestic travellers to Arakan State will not be kept under quarantine, said the Department of Public Health in Arakan State.

Continuous rain in Arakan State led to flooding at Yatchaung IDP camp in Myebon Township and evacuated IDPs, according to officials of the camp.

Some IDP camps in Arakan State are in urgent need of mosquito nets, according to the in-charges of the camps.

Two out of five men arrested by the Tatmadaw last month from Apaukwa village in conflict-plagued Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township were released on July 4, according to the detainees’ family members.

The Colourless Charity Group, a nongovernmental organisation based in Sittwe, has collected rice reserves for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State and will donate rice to IDPs if they face hardship, according to officials from the group.

Nine people have been detained for about 10 days at a naval base in Kyaukphyu under the military’s Danyawaddy Regional Command, with their families not allowed to see them and prompting concern for their safety.

Transnational commerce at a border trade camp in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, was suspended for a second time on July 3 as COVID-19 concerns were raised anew, according to the Maungdaw District General Administration Department.