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.

A clash broke out between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army along a mountain range near Sabahta village in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township on February 10 and a woman was wounded by shrapnel, said the township’s Pyithu Hluttaw lawmaker U Aung Thaung Shwe.

A fire broke out inside the old Sittwe University compound near U Ottama Park in the Arakan State capital on February 9, destroying some of the buildings formerly used by students and staff, locals said.

A financial officer for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Ramree Township, Arakan State, was detained by an armed group at about 6 p.m. on February 8, township party secretary U Tin Yi said.

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.