Allied forces of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) and Kaw Thoo Lei Army’s Venom Column fought fiercely with junta troops near the village of Melkane in Kayin (Karen) State’s Myawaddy Township on Wednesday, with the regime carrying out air attacks, according to local residents.

Environmentalists planted more than 1,500 mangrove trees from April 14-16 in Arakan State’s Ann Township to celebrate Thingyan, the Myanmar New Year.

There were 20 traffic accidents reported in Arakan State during Thingyan from April 13-16, resulting in two deaths and 20 injuries, according to the state traffic police and local social organisations.

The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) has announced that temperature averages may rise across Myanmar’s regions and states in the coming hot season.

Nearly 15,000 local and foreign travellers visited Ngapali Beach in Arakan State’s Thandwe District during the Thingyan holiday period, according to an official from the district’s directorate of hotels and tourism.

Fighting has been ongoing in Mawtaung, on the Myanmar-Thai border in Tanintharyi Region, since April 13, halting the flow of goods and causing a sharp rise in the prices of basic food items, according to residents.

The BPLA currently has established good relations with other armed resistance organisations including the Three Brotherhood Alliance, and is preparing for a practical revolution, the message said.

At least three people, including a 4-year-old child, were killed and seven others were wounded after the junta launched an airstrike on Pangpah Village, part of Chin State’s Mindat Township, on Sunday evening, according to locals.

Myanmar’s military regime released 3,015 prisoners in a mass amnesty to mark the Myanmar New Year (Thingyan) on April 17.

There were 20 traffic accidents reported in Sittwe from April 13 to 15, according to figures compiled by the Shwe Yaung Myitta Foundation, a local charity in the Arakan State capital.

At least 28 people, including some junta officials, were injured when an anti-regime drone attacked a Thingyan pavilion in Loikaw, Kayah State, on April 15, according to sources on the ground and Myanmar’s military regime.

The number of Myanmar migrant labourers working in Thailand who returned to their homeland for the Thingyan holiday is down from previous years, according to Myanmar’s Labor Attaché Office.

The number of people killed in a junta airstrike on Pazigyi Village in Sagaing Region’ Kanbalu Township has risen to at least 171, according to ground sources.

Myanmar’s military regime has sentenced 151 civilians to death during the two-plus years since the coup in February 2021, according to an April 11 press release from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which has been tracking casualties and detentions since the putsch.

A bomb blast at a Thingyan water festival pavilion near Yan Taing Aung Pagoda in Lashio, northern Shan State, has reportedly killed six people and injured two, according to sources on the ground.

A Border Guard Force member was killed on Tuesday when a grenade exploded at a BGF outpost in Kyaukpandu Village, part of Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township, according to initial reports.

Arakan Army (AA) chief Major-General Twan Mrat Naing will reportedly attend the Chin National Spring Revolution Day ceremony to be held on April 13.

There are many traffic accidents in Arakan State each year during the Thingyan holiday period, and social organisations are emphasising the importance for drivers to operate their vehicles with special care.

They were among the first to be displaced by fighting between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) in December 2018.