Educators and MPs are asking armed groups to stop fighting during upcoming matriculation exams so that students preparing for the tests can focus on their studies.

The Myanmar Teachers’ Federation and a coalition of civil society organisations released a statement on February 15 denouncing those responsible for an artillery attack last week on a village school Buthidaung Township, which left 21 students injured.

As displaced populations have increased in recent months at refugee camps in Arakan State’s Rathedaung town, providing adequate shelter for the swell of IDPs has been a challenge, according to volunteers assisting them.

One of the 21 students injured when an artillery shell hit a village school in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township last week will be transferred to Yangon General Hospital to undergo jaw reconstructive surgery, a local administrator told DMG.

A civilian from Phar Pyo village in Minbya Township, Arakan State, reportedly emerged from a recent interrogation by the Tatmadaw with multiple injuries amid fighting between the military and Arakan Army nearby.

Twenty matriculation exam centers in Arakan State will be closed temporarily due to safety concerns, with students originally scheduled to sit for testing at the shuttered centers reassigned to other venues, according to Arakan State’s Department of Education.

Foreign missions in Myanmar have offered condolences, support and some stern words following the shelling of a school in Arakan State’s Buthidaung Township that injured at least 21 students last week.

People from Dar Lat Chaung village-tract and 50 nearby villages in Arakan State’s Ann Township are facing difficulties because they have been barred from transporting rice into the area, according to a regional parliamentarian and affected residents.

Myanmar’s military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing held talks about the latest developments in conflict-torn Arakan State with Sittwe town elders, according to U Than Shwe, one of the discussion’s attendees.

Three civilians were reportedly hit by stray bullets as hostilities erupted between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army near Rar Maung Bridge in Arakan State’s Minbya Township on February 14.

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.