As the export of betel nuts from Arakan State to Bangladesh has been banned, demand is decreasing and betel nut farmers are facing losses.

Roads and bridges damaged by Cyclone Mocha in Arakan State are yet to be repaired more than five months after the devastating storm hit the state, according to residents.

Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing on Sunday again sought to assure the Myanmar people that his military government will organise a free and fair election that reflects the genuine will of voters.

Internally displaced people (IDPs) in downtown Kyauktaw’s displacement camps whose shelters were destroyed by Cyclone Mocha are building makeshift tents on a self-reliant basis, according to IDP camp officials.

Local fishermen in Palaw Township, Tanintharyi Region, are facing livelihood hardships as the Myanmar Navy has banned them from fishing in waters off the coast.

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing vowed to uphold the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) in Myanmar’s peace process and urged non-signatories to sign the deal as he addressed an anniversary event for the peace pact on Sunday.

Family members are demanding the release of Maung Wai Yan Lin, a 17-year-old boy from Laikkhamaw Village, part of Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township, who has been charged with incitement under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code.

A 28-year-old paralyzed woman in Ngayichaing Village, part of Arakan State’s Pauktaw Township, was raped on Saturday night.

Myanmar’s military regime has taken action against seven foreign employment agencies for violations of the law, according to the junta’s Ministry of Labour.

Small-scale garment factories in the Mon State capital Mawlamyine have been forced to replace automated electric sewing machines with manual alternatives due to severe power outages.

There have been at least 22 massacres since the military coup in February 2021, with at least 502 civilians killed in those massacres, according to the latest report from the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar).

Local merchants have blamed a decline in Myanmar’s border trade with Bangladesh through the Maungdaw border trade camp, which earns US dollar income for the country, on recent changes in the junta’s trade policy.

A new species of begonia has been discovered in Myanmar’s Kayin (Karen) State, according to Native Species Conservation and Identification of Myanmar, a citizenship science initiative dedicated to documenting and conserving the country’s biodiversity.
 

More than 140 houses have been washed away due to riverbank and coastal erosion during the current rainy season across Arakan State’s Kyauktaw, Minbya, Pauktaw, Taungup, Thandwe and Ramree townships, according to residents.

A United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) spokesman said a man who died recently while in the organisation’s custody was beaten while attempting to flee and likely lost his life as a result of the injuries he sustained.

The Arakan Army (AA) said some of its members were killed and injured in junta artillery strikes on its bases in Kachin State’s Laiza.

About 100,000 acres of paddy fields have been destroyed by floods triggered by incessant rains across eight townships in Bago Region, according to the Myanmar Rice Federation in Bago District.

The Arakan Army (AA) has identified the culprit in the murder of an assistant teacher from Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township, AA spokesperson U Khaing Thukha said on October 13. 

Local residents in Arakan State’s sub-townships have called on authorities to improve urban infrastructure in their respective areas.