A total of six Arakan National Party (ANP) members in Taungup Township, Arakan State, have been arrested and charged under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law in recent weeks. 

Three villagers were injured and two others were detained by the Tatmadaw from June 8-10 after gunfire was heard in Apaukwa village, Kyauktaw Township, villagers said.

The Manaung Township General Administration Department released a regional order on June 9 to protect coral reef naturally grown along the coast of the township’s Pyin Kauk village.

Gunfire just after midnight on June 10 killed a woman in her 80s and injured four others including a police officer in Amyint Kyun village, Sittwe Township, according to residents.

A civilian from the town of Paletwa, Chin State, was injured by gunfire on June 9, according to family members of the victim.

Muslims sheltering at Kyauktalone IDP camp in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township are asking to be resettled at their original places of residence; in doing so, they have rejected government arrangements to resettle at a site two furlongs away from the Kyauktalone camp.

The chair of the Arakan National Party (ANP) in Taungup Township’s Maei town, U Myo Lwin aka Maung Kae, was arrested by the Tatmadaw in the early hours of June 9, family members said.

The families of 18 villagers taken by the Tatmadaw from Tinma village in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, are increasingly concerned for their well-being as relatives remain largely without information about the detainees’ status. 

Residents of Dar Lat Chaung village-tract in Arakan State’s Ann Township are said to be facing difficulties because the Tatmadaw has reportedly banned them from transporting rice into the area.

A total of 13 people were charged in Arakan State last month under Counter-Terrorism Law provisions, for which some could face up to life in prison if found guilty, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. 

Mosquito-borne illnesses are a growing concern expressed among the in-charges of camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State as the rainy season settles in.

The number of domestic and foreign visitors to Arakan State is on pace for its third consecutive year of decline as armed conflict between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army continues to batter tourism, joined this year by the COVID-19 pandemic, said the Directorate of Hotels and Tourism in Arakan State.

Commodity prices have soared in Paletwa Township, Chin State, where locals are also facing shortages of household items as all major transport routes leading into the area have been cut off, according to residents.

The Food Security Working Group (FSWG), a nongovernmental organisation involved in food security-related issues in Myanmar, has demanded the release of a man from Bu Shwe Maw village, Taungup Township, who was abducted last month. 

Eight displaced people who illegally returned to Arakan State from Bangladesh were located in Buthidaung Township on June 5 and are now under quarantine, said Buthidaung Township administrator U Shwe Hla Aung. 

The growing popularity of a beach and coral reef along the Manaung Township coast has fuelled an adjacent land dispute, according to the Pyin Kauk village administrator.

The senior monk of the Thein Tan village monastery in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, has spearheaded an effort to restore the crown of the township’s Mahamuni Pagoda Buddha image, said the chairperson of the pagoda’s board of trustees. 

Five men facing charges under Section 52(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law were questioned by Tatmadaw officers from the No. 5 Military Operations Command at a police station in Arakan State’s Taungup Township on June 4, according to the accused. 

Four more men entered Myanmar illegally from Bangladesh days after a cross-border case of COVID-19 was reported in Maungdaw Township, said U Soe Aung, the administrator of Arakan State’s Maungdaw District.