Landmine blasts in the Arakan State townships of Minbya and Ponnagyun on January 19 injured nine people, including three children, residents said.

The Tatmadaw arrested a sergeant-level Arakan Army (AA) officer in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township, the Office of the Commander-in-Chief announced on January 20.

A passenger bus running from Yangon to Kyaukphyu overturned near Kalar Pone village in Ramree Township at about 5 a.m. on January 20, killing four people and injuring six others, according to a Kyaukphyu funeral services charity group.  

One man was shot dead and another was arrested in Mrauk-U during an incident at a Tatmadaw checkpoint on the morning of January 19, according to Arakan State lawmaker U Tun Thar Sein.

A 7-year-old Muslim girl sustained a gunshot wound at around 4 a.m. on January 20 at Sin Thay Pyin village in Buthidaung Township, her family members said.

Arakan Army spokesperson Khaing Thukha told DMG that his group is arranging to soon release two Tatmadaw soldiers in its custody as a show of the ethnic armed organization’s compassion.

Myanmar and China signed agreements on the Kyaukphyu Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and deep-sea port project during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Myanmar despite the objections of some civil society organizations in Arakan State.

Locals have urged KBZ Bank to reopen its branch in the town of Mrauk-U, Arakan State, as its closure 10 months ago has forced them to seek out financial services in other townships.

The Arakan Army (AA) released a statement ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Myanmar on January 17-18, saying the ethnic armed group heartily welcomed his historic trip.

“We are afraid of coming to Myanmar. It is not OK to live in Bangladesh either. That’s why we were going to Malaysia to work. But we were detained and sent back to Maungdaw. We have no luck,” one Muslim who has been accepted back to Maungdaw told DMG.

A fishing boat was hit by a ship in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township, killing four people aboard the smaller vessel and leaving one person missing, according to the Kyaukphyu Myoma police station.

More than 300 villagers from Dar Lat Chaung and Ka Zu Kaing villages have sought refuge in the town of Ann due to clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army, but no temporary camp for them has yet been established.

Thirty-three people who had been pinned down by fighting at a village in Arakan State’s northern Rathedaung Township for five days were rescued on January 15, locals said.

Residents of Tharyar Kone village in southern Maungdaw Township say they remain powerless, in a literal sense, after paying to have the village hooked up to the grid only to remain without electricity months later.

The number of wartime refugees taking shelter in Sittwe has risen due to recent fighting in the state, according to Bhadanta U Rarzeinda, abbot of the Metta Parami Monastery in the Arakan State capital.

Hundreds of wartime refugees at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) near War Taung village in Minbya Township, Arakan State, say they are lacking adequate provision of basic necessities such as food, clothing and shelter.

Maungdaw District administrator U Soe Aung says authorities will check whether 155 Muslims who were detained in waters off southeastern Myanmar and brought to Maungdaw had previously lived in Arakan State.

U Wai Hla Aung, the camp manager, told DMG on January 12 that a lake near the camp dried up last month and IDPs are now using unclean water from a nearby ditch dug for a railway.

Chinese Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Sun Guoxiang met with leaders of the Arakan Army (AA) and urged the ethnic armed group to reduce clashes and refrain from attacks on the Tatmadaw, AA spokesperson Khaing Thukha has told DMG.