More than 300 local residents have been displaced by fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA) in Buthidaung Township this week.

Residents of Nat Maw village in Arakan State’s Taungup Township have complained to the Anti-Corruption Commission, alleging that their former local administrator misappropriated the government’s COVID-19 relief fund, a village source said.

More than 400 Muslim contract-appointed teachers from government-run schools and IDP camp classrooms for Muslims in Sittwe, Arakan State, are facing financial hardship as they have gone months without receiving paychecks.

A Rural Road Development Department director who had been receiving treatment for COVID-19 at Sittwe General Hospital succumbed to the disease on October 7.

Discreet anti-government and anti-military campaigns have been reported in the Arakan State townships of Sittwe, Taungup, Ramree and Minbya, following the arrest and prosecution of anti-war demonstrators in the state capital Sittwe and elsewhere in Myanmar over recent weeks. 

Voter lists in Aungzigone Village, Rathedaung Township, were damaged this week by shrapnel from an artillery shell allegedly fired by the Tatmadaw, according to U Oo Kyaw Thein, the village administrator.

A resident of Anaukpyin (Muslim) village in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, was wounded by a stray bullet at about 6:30 p.m. on October 7, according to the village administrator and the victim. 

Poor families in Ramree Township, Arakan State, complain that they have not been receiving COVID-19 relief funds being provided to some households by the government.

COVID-19 patients who have been put on oxygen concentrators at Sittwe General Hospital in Arakan State will be treated with convalescent plasma from recovered patients, according to an official from the hospital.  

The All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) said the Aungmyethazan Township Court in Mandalay has sentenced two students to an additional year in prison for protesting against military operations in Arakan State last month.

Two out of three residents of Padar village in Taungup Township, Arakan State, who were arrested by security personnel on suspicion of having ties to the Arakan Army were released on October 6, according to family members.

The military took custody once again of a detained village administrator in the Arakan State capital Sittwe who was briefly turned over to police after his initial arrest by Tatmadaw personnel on Saturday. 

An 8-year-old boy was wounded by heavy weapons fire from a naval vessel in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, according to the boy’s family and local villagers. 

Three Muslim men were shot dead near U Soe Tint Bridge in Minbya Township, Arakan State, on October 5, according to local residents, who said Tatmadaw troops also arrested three people from U Soe Tint Ward.

Two villagers were killed and another was seriously wounded in a clash involving the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA) about 1 mile from Pyin Shay (Muslim) village in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township on October 5, locals said. 

As regional COVID-19 infection rates continue to rise, Arakan State’s Mrauk-U District is in need of more healthcare workers, according to local health officials.

A brawl broke out in the village of Kywe Htoe, Ponnagyun Township, this week after the village administrator allegedly misappropriated funds provided by the government for low-income families in the village.  

An internally displaced person (IDP) sheltering at Saphokyun Kanpyin IDP camp in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, was shot amid a barrage of gunfire reportedly from a naval vessel stationed nearby on October 5, according to locals. 

Ward and village administrators are drawing attention to the case of a fellow administrator from Tawkan village in Arakan State’s Sittwe Township who was recently arrested by Tatmadaw troops.