Seating arrangements on board ferries transporting passengers between the Arakan State capital Sittwe and its outlying townships are under scrutiny in the age of coronavirus.

Seventy-eight organisations including political parties, civil society groups and media outlets have sent an open letter to Myanmar’s president and state counsellor requesting that they lift the one-year-old internet ban imposed in seven Arakan State townships and Chin State’s Paletwa Township. 

Security personnel are suspected of helping to transport people who recently entered northern Arakan State illegally from Bangladesh, according to presidential spokesperson U Zaw Htay.

Farmers in Arakan State are expressing concern about their ability to safely grow crops in war-torn parts of the state, as regular clashes continue to kill, injure and displace civilians.

A woman was injured when a passenger bus was reportedly sprayed by bullets on the Yangon-Sittwe road near Kyauk Seik village in Ponnagyun Township on June 19, according to residents. 

Election preparations are proceeding as planned ahead of the 2020 vote in Arakan State, where ongoing conflict has raised doubts about the feasibility of holding the polls in just a few months’ time.

A village-tract clerk of the Kyaukphyu Township General Administration Department in Arakan State was found dead this week and is believed to have been murdered, according to the township’s police force.

An investigation has been launched to root out those responsible for sending people in Bangladesh across the border illegally into northern Arakan State, according to the Maungdaw District administrator.

Internally displaced people in Arakan State are getting an early dose of monsoon season misery as recent heavy rains have flooded some IDP camps.

A couple from Shwe Kyinpyin village in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township disappeared three days ago and have not been heard from since, according to residents.

The COVID-19 pandemic is confounding proposed peace talks between government negotiators and representatives of the Northern Alliance, a coalition of four ethnic armed groups including the Arakan Army, according to the Kachin Peace-talk Creation Group (PCG).

Nuns in Sittwe are feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in their alms bowls, with donations dipping in recent months as economic uncertainty and fear of viral transmission keep doors shut and pocketbooks in pockets. 

Employees of banks in Arakan State are concerned for their safety after armed robbers recently made off with about K180 million (US$124,000) from a Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank branch in downtown Sittwe.

Facing food shortages, more than 100 internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering at Alae Kyun village in the Dar Let Chaung village-tract of Ann Township, Arakan State, have relocated to Ann town, according to the manager of the No. 1 Pae Padone IDP camp in Ann town.

Cattle traders in Manaung Township, Arakan State, say they are facing hardship because they cannot export cows abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Thandwe Township Court on June 16 remanded four men including the chair of the Taungup Township Development Affairs Committee and the vice chair of the Arakan National Party for Taungup Township, according to lawyer U Tin Nyo. 

The families of several villagers in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township being detained by the Tatmadaw have called for the release of the 18 detainees — 10 from Tinmagyi village and eight from new Tinma village.

A court in Taungup Township, Arakan State, began hearing witnesses for the plaintiff in a case against five men from Sar Pyin village facing charges under Section 52(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law, a lawyer representing the accused told DMG.

The process of relocating internally displaced people (IDPs) sheltering at school buildings in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw town began on June 14, with teachers set to be given new curricula training at schools currently inhabited by hundreds of IDPs.