Farmers whose croplands were confiscated for a new town project in Ramree Township, Arakan State, are demanding that they be given substitute land immediately.

The Tatmadaw and Arakan Army are accusing each other of having fired the artillery shell that hit a village school in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township this past week, but both sides have also denied those allegations.

Blood samples from two people in Arakan State who are under observation as potential coronavirus cases have been sent to Thailand for testing, the deputy director of the Ministry of Health and Sports told DMG.

Some IDP camps in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw and Ponnagyun townships are facing drinking water shortages and are being forced to “thriftily” use the potable resources they have, according to camp refugees.

The victim was identified as Nga Lone Chay and the explosion occurred on Thursday afternoon as he was returning home from cutting wood in the forest with his friend Ko Zaw Linn, his aunt Phyu Ma Chay said.

Residents have lodged a complaint with police and local administrators alleging that a prawn farmer was wantonly cutting down and selling mangrove trees near Thayet Taw village, part of Arakan State’s Pauktaw Township.

Twenty-one students were injured on February 13 when an artillery shell hit a primary school in Buthidaung Township’s Khami Chaung village, teacher U Thar Aye Maung told DMG.

With the number of people internally displaced by fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army rising in Arakan State, the Zedi Taung IDP camp in Buthidaung Township is in dire need of food and other relief aid, according to local administrator U Kyaw Than.

A police lance corporal was stabbed to death in the Ann Township village of Kazukaing on the evening of February 11, said an anonymous resident.

Daw Oo Kyawt Sein was hit by the ordnance while she was in her garden and one of her legs was severed in the blast, a resident who asked not to be named told DMG.

An artillery shell landed in Yay Chan Pyin Muslim village of Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township at about 3 p.m. on February 12, killing three members of a family and injuring two others, locals said.

An accounting of the struggles faced by students from IDP camps in Arakan State will be submitted to the National Reconciliation and Peace Center (NRPC), said youth peace ambassadors from Sittwe University.

Two children were killed and eight other civilians — nearly all of them also children — were injured in a single bloody day this week in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, amid ongoing clashes there between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army.

Four students were severely injured by an artillery shell blast at Myauk Taung village in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, at around 4 p.m. on February 11, locals said.

Fighting flared between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army on February 10 in Paletwa Township, Chin State, and Arakan State’s Buthidaung and Kyauktaw townships, with both sides suffering heavy casualties, the AA said.

The internet blackout affecting nine townships of Arakan and Chin states was the topic of conversation at a discussion organised by the Arakan Youth Network and Sittwe University Students’ Union on February 9 in the Arakan State capital Sittwe.

Arakan State Hluttaw Speaker U San Kyaw Hla said authorities have been very slow to implement proposals approved by the regional legislature, describing the lag as a democratic deficiency.

U Tun Thar Sein, a lawmaker representing Mrauk-U Township, said the order was promulgated on February 5, stipulating that new camps were not to be established in Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya, Buthidaung, Rathedaung and Myebon townships.

Three Muslim children from Taung Bwe village in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township were wounded when an artillery shell landed on their house on February 10, residents said.