Growing humanitarian aid need in Arakan State has led to the emergence of fly-by-night “charity” groups and other fraudulent donation-seeking schemes in the state capital Sittwe.

A 7-year-old girl from Nga Hlan Pyin village in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township suffered a shrapnel wound to her left thigh when an artillery shell exploded near her home on February 7, family members said.

Four women from two villages in Rathedaung Township, Arakan State, were reportedly injured by artillery fire on the evening of February 6, according to family members of the victims.

Brokers who export local products to Bangladesh via the Maungdaw border trade zone are struggling to maintain the transnational flow of goods as internet access has been cut off in northern Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township.

Fifty-seven residents trapped by fighting in Rathedaung Township’s Kalachaung and Manyin Taung villages were safely rescued on February 5 through the cooperation of the township Sangha Nayaka group and activists.

Residents of Nyaung Pinhla village in Rathedaung Township said that most of their houses have been ransacked, with many belongings inside the homes destroyed.

“We took more than K4 million from the Myanmar Police Force because it is among the groups who have attacked us. That’s why we took the money — they are an enemy armed group for us. But we gave back the money to the teachers,”

With authorities citing security concerns to justify a fishing ban in Maungdaw Township’s Kaing Gyi village that has been in place since June 2019, fishermen there are struggling to make ends meet, locals said.

A 30-year-old Muslim man from Sin Thay Pyin village in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State, was shot at about 8 a.m. on February 5, according to the victim’s family.

An Ann Township resident charged under Myanmar’s counter-terrorism law was acquitted by the Kyaukphyu District Court and released on February 4.

Nearly 60 people from Kalachaung and Manyin Taung villages in Rathedaung Township have been pinned down by fighting while other residents have fled the clashes, which broke out in an area between the two villages on the evening of February 2.

Internet access has again been blocked in five townships of western Myanmar, just over a month after parliamentarians and activists demonstrated against the government and called on it to restore online connectivity in four Arakan State townships where a shutdown has been in place since June last year.

An explosive remnant of war killed a teenage boy and seriously injured a woman when the ordnance blew up at a village in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, on February 2.

Artillery and small arms fire killed a mother and injured three men on the morning of February 3 in Kyauktaw town. Daw Hla Hla Yi, the wife of U Kyaw Thein Tun, said her husband was shot by Tatmadaw soldiers who had set up a temporary camp near the town’s Mahar Kankyishin Pagoda.

Three young men were attacked with knives and sticks by a group of intoxicated individuals at around 2 p.m. on February 1 near Latma, a Muslim village in Arakan State’s Minbya Township, village administrator U Maung Thein Hlaing told DMG.

A 28-year-old primary school teacher who works at Panetaw Kontan village in Rathedaung Township was injured when she was struck by a stray bullet at 3:30 p.m. on February 3, U Tun Hla Maung, the injured woman’s father, told DMG.

An artillery shell landed in Pyane Daw village of Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township at about 2 p.m. on February 1, injuring three members of a family there, the abbot of the village monastery told DMG.

A resident of Ngasan Baw village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township was killed on the spot when he stepped on a landmine at around 2:30 p.m. on February 2 while searching for his cattle, according to Yaybote village administrator U Maung Wai Thein.

The sound of gunfire, a frequent occurrence in Mrauk-U Township for nearly a year, has not been heard there since a final proposal to designate the former Arakan’s capital, Mrauk-U a UNESCO World Heritage Site was submitted on January 27, residents said.