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.

A 20-year-old resident of Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township who recently returned from China and was hospitalized with illness less than a week later is not being treated as a coronavirus case, Sittwe General Hospital’s Medical Superintendent Dr. Tun Tun Win told DMG.

Ma Nilarpala, one of its female Hindu residents, told DMG the village is home to more than 1,000 people across 148 households. A single well in the village is insufficient to meet the residents’ needs, she said.

After a Tatmadaw column of more than 100 soldiers left the village, a clash broke out at about 10 a.m. among the hills and fields of an area about a half mile from the village, said a villager who asked not to be named for security reasons.

Citing the poor condition of the Kamar Chaung Bridge along Kyunpat Road in Manaung Township, Arakan State, residents there are requesting that a new bridge be built. They say the existing bridge, used by some 30 villages on the island, has fallen into disrepair beyond salvaging.

Displaced civilians have continued to arrive at the Sa Nyin IDP camp outside the Myebon Township village of the same name, despite a military directive ordering that the camp be dismantled and its inhabitants moved elsewhere. 

Some IDP camps in remote parts of northern Arakan State are reporting food shortages due to lack of aid deliveries, according to officials at the camps.

Amid concerns of a measles outbreak at a village in Arakan State’s Ann Township, a local administrator told DMG on January 31 that more than 30 children out of over 70 showing signs of illness have recovered after receiving medical treatment.

The Arakan State government has said that one-way traffic flow will be introduced on some roads in Sittwe to reduce congestion and improve road safety.

Sittwe’s Traffic Police Force has confirmed that it is offering leniency to motorcycles with unregistered passenger carriages, which have been allowed to ply certain roads with authorities’ understanding in parts of the Arakan State capital.

Among more than 700 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled their homes in four Arakan State townships and have been sheltering in Sittwe for nearly six months, many see little hope for a return anytime soon.

The Anti-Corruption Commission has yet to respond to a complaint against two Arakan State government ministers more than 17 months after it was filed, the complainants said.