Some schools remain closed in parts of Arakan State despite an informal ceasefire recently reached between Myanmar’s military regime and the Arakan Army (AA), according to teachers and local residents.

As ethnic Kaman people gathered Monday to celebrate Kaman National Day, some took the opportunity to warn against political exploitation of the predominantly Muslim group that resides primarily in Arakan State.

Myanmar will resume domestic flights from the Mon State capital Mawlamyine to the country’s commercial hub Yangon, nearly three years after the route was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and post-coup political turmoil.

Local people in parts of Myebon Township, Arakan State, are experiencing hassles gaining access to public healthcare services as doctors have not yet come to serve at the Kyarinntaung cottage hospital some two years after it was opened.

Thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) from 10 displacement camps were temporarily relocated after fierce clashes erupted between the military and Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF) near Thaybot Sulae and Kontha villages in Demoso Township, Kayah (Karenni) State, on December 3 and 4, according to aid workers.

U Kyaw Hein, a 40-year-old IDP who has reportedly been charged under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act, is in poor health and needs medical treatment, family members said. 

Police have detained a civil servant from the township General Administration Department (GAD) in Maungdaw, Arakan State, according to reliable sources. 

Thirteen Muslim corpses were found dumped by a roadside in Yangon’s Hlegu Township on Monday morning, according to local residents. 

With Arakan State residents suffering through increasingly frequent and lengthy power outages in recent months, individual households and businesses are reportedly looking more and more to solar panels as an alternative, more reliable means of electricity supply. 

A ceremony to share merit for nine residents killed by the Myanmar military last month was held in Sin Inn Gyi Village, part of Arakan State’s Ponnagyun Township, on Sunday. 

Myanmar’s military regime reopened the waterway linking Arakan State’s Kyauktaw and Chin State’s Paletwa on Saturday, with some restrictions still in place, after a months-long blockade that raised prices and caused various other hardships for local residents. 

People with disabilities called for greater legal protections and economic opportunity on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which falls annually on December 3. 

Myanmar’s military regime reopened the Sittwe-Ponnagyun road at around 4 p.m. on Saturday, according to local residents, a week after the junta and Arakan Army (AA) reached an informal ceasefire bringing an end, for now, to months of renewed hostilities in the region.

Two landmine casualties were reported over the span of two days in a pair of northern Arakan State townships as the remnants of war continue to affect civilian lives despite a recently reached ceasefire between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA).  

Local residents in southern Arakan State’s Gwa Township have criticised the Myanmar military for building a new helipad at the township football pitch despite the fact that there are already other helipads in the town.

Myanmar’s military regime has not yet lifted its travel ban on local and international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in Arakan State despite the latest ceasefire reached between junta forces and the Arakan Army (AA).

A married woman in her 40s from Ngapathone Village, part of Arakan State’s Myebon Township, was reportedly raped and killed on November 28, according to local residents. 

Two varieties of pepper — Moe Htaung and Kyauksein — were grown on a trial basis in Arakan State’s Sittwe, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U and Pauktaw townships, and a 75 percent success rate was recorded, according to growers.

The border trade with Bangladesh through Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township still can’t operate as normal despite the latest ceasefire between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA), according to border traders in Maungdaw.