As the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) becomes the latest ethnic armed group to meet with Myanmar’s military regime for rebooted peace talks this week, observers continue to view the junta-led process dubiously.

The industry has been in decline for a decade, with the number of salt farmers plummeting from more than 1,000 across 12 Arakan State townships to just 50 or so today, according to the Arakan State Salt Department.

Grade 11 students at a high school in Arakan State’s Minbya Township are reportedly struggling to learn due to the lack of a school building to accommodate them.

Arakanese political analysts say the military junta’s ostensible efforts to repatriate Muslims from Bangladesh are unlikely to succeed as long as political instability prevails in Myanmar.

Local residents in Sittwe have complained about the condition of thoroughfares and other heavily trafficked streets in the Arakan State capital that are riddled with large, deep potholes now filled with water since the onset of the monsoon season.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, the current chair of ASEAN, has called on the Myanmar junta to rethink its plans to execute political dissidents including 88 Generation student leader Ko Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw.

Arakan Army (AA) spokesman Khaing Thukha has called the military regime’s arrest of local administrators in Chin State’s Paletwa Township a human rights violation amid rising military tensions between the two sides.

One man was killed and three other people, including children, were wounded when artillery shells fired by junta troops fell on Hsaungdula village in Kayah State’s Demoso Township on Friday night, according to locals.

More than a week after schools opened on June 2, a group of ethnic Kaman high school students in the Arakan State capital Sittwe remain unable to enrol.

There were 192 cases of dengue fever reported in Arakan State this year from January 1 to June 10, according to a source from the state’s Department of Public Health (DPH). 

The United Nations on June 9 called for an investigation into the killing of a World Health Organization (WHO) employee in Mawlamyine, Mon State, this week. 

A charity worker was killed and another injured in Mon State’s Kyaikto Township when their vehicle was shot at by junta soldiers on Thursday night, according to residents. 

A man and woman in Kyaukphyu who were detained on suspicion of raising funds for the Arakan Army (AA) have been charged with incitement under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code. 

The Myanmar military has made a series of arrests of locals in Paletwa Township, Chin State, where military tensions between junta troops and the Arakan Army (AA) have simmered in recent days, and another 100-household head was arrested on June 8. 

Students in Arakan State from 5 to 12 years old have been administered the Covid-19 vaccine since schools reopened on June 2, with 82,788 children having received their first dose as of June 8, according to the Arakan State Education Department. 

According to the Southern Monitor, which tracks conflict in Tanintharyi Region, fighting between junta troops and anti-regime forces in the region has left more than 50 homes damaged or destroyed by fire and 75 locals dead over the past nine and five months, respectively. 

A junta-appointed ward administrator was stabbed to death near an office of the township war veterans’ association in Ann, Arakan State, on Thursday morning, according to locals. 

There are more than 35,000 ethnic Mro people in Arakan State, and 75% of school-age children are not in school due to poverty and remote living circumstances, according to Mro youth organisations. 

Locals from Yaynan Dwein village in Kyaukphyu Township say the village faces annual flooding because a creek that flows through the village gets shallower year after year.