Myanmar’s military regime has deployed 9,000 to 10,000 soldiers and police in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, where military tensions are running high, Arakan Army spokesman U Khaing Thukha said at an online press conference on Monday.

The Myanmar military and Arakan Army are accusing each other of having fired a mortar shell that landed in Bangladesh on the evening of September 16, killing a teen Muslim refugee from Myanmar and injuring six others.

Veteran Arakanese politician and former Arakan State lawmaker U Pe Than has been charged under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code and Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law over an interview he gave to DMG recently. 

The Myanmar military took two men from their homes in Arakan State’s Taungup Township, where military tensions are currently running high, according to locals.  

Life has become increasingly difficult for many residents of Arakan State as the Myanmar military regime’s blockading of key road and water routes has continued, in some cases for months. 

More than 2,000 residents of Kayin State’s Myawaddy Township were displaced by fighting between junta troops and the combined forces of Kayin (Karen) resistance groups on September 15 and 16.

Hundreds of local people from Tamarkhaw Village in Mone Township, Bago Region, who were forcibly evicted from their village by Myanmar’s military regime, are in urgent need of food, shelter and clothes, according to local civil society organisations.

The township administrator has instructed internally displaced people (IDPs) who are currently sheltering in downtown Paletwa to return home next month, and a list is being collected as to whether they want to return home or not.

Traditional zat pwe artists and troupe owners in Arakan State, who have been preparing to return to the stage next month, now worry that a series of recent clashes between Myanmar’s military regime and the Arakan Army threaten to derail those plans.

Increasing numbers of young people in Mon State, both from rural and urban areas, are leaving military-ruled Myanmar to work abroad, according to local residents and overseas employment agencies.

Local residents of Aung Mingalar Village in northern Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, felt compelled to flee their homes after a large number of junta soldiers and border guard police searched their village on Friday afternoon. 

Myanmar’s military regime has barred local and international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) from travelling to multiple townships in Arakan State following the renewed fighting between junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) over recent weeks. 

Family members of seven detained men in Arakan State’s Taungup and Kyaukphyu townships say they are worried about the safety of the detainees as they have not been in contact with them since their arrests in recent weeks. 

Junta troops fired shots at a vehicle carrying the well-known social activist Ko Ann Thar Gyi in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township on Friday.

A police officer at Apaukwa Police Station in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township was reportedly arrested by the Arakan Army on Thursday. 

The Arakan Army (AA) attacked a support ship belonging to the Myanmar military with heavy weapons in Arakan State’s Taungup Township at around 2 p.m. on Friday, according to local people. 

Village administrators in Arakan State are concerned about their safety following the Myanmar’s regime’s detention of administrators from areas that have seen heightened military tensions between the military and Arakan Army (AA).

With the passport office in the Arakan State capital Sittwe packed with people desperate to leave Myanmar amid rising unemployment and costs of living, brokers are profiting from the country’s increasingly grim economic outlook.

The Arakan Army (AA) will impose checks on vehicles and vessels in Arakan State, said AA spokesman U Khaing Thukha, alleging that Myanmar’s military regime has been bringing in reinforcements by both public and private means of transport.