Brigade 4 of the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), the armed wing of the Karen National Union (KNU), has warned that fighting may continue as the Myanmar military has sent reinforcements to five townships in southeastern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi Region, according to a KNU source.

The Arakan State Administration Council has distributed fertiliser to township agriculture offices so that farmers in Thandwe, Taungup, Gwa, Mrauk-U and Kyauktaw townships can buy at subsidised prices as the cost of fertiliser has skyrocketed over the past year.

Residents of Ponnagyun Township have called for the earliest possible implementation of a long-delayed industrial zone in the township, hoping that the project will create job opportunities for locals.

A first-of-its-kind modern poetry award has been bestowed in Arakan State by the Arakanese Literature Development Foundation.

Political observers have said the Myanmar junta leader’s recent proposal for face-to-face peace talks with the country’s established ethnic armed groups rings hollow.

Cashew trees planted in Arakan State’s Manaung Township have seen declining yields this year, according to cashew nut farmers.

Some 400 ethnic Mro people who have relocated near the village of Kyauk Pandu in northern Maungdaw Township are struggling to access drinking water.

Building materials worth more than K6 million were reportedly stolen from the Yan Pyay Man Pyay Pagoda under construction at the BXT port in the Arakan State capital Sittwe.

The Arakan State military council said it has tasked the concerned district administrators with repairing houses damaged by destructive windstorms that hit the state earlier this week.

The department aims for 100 percent coverage of both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in Arakan State, said the assistant director of Arakan State Public Health Department, Dr. Soe Win Paing, who acknowledged that they likely would not reach that goal.

Junta chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Friday invited Myanmar’s ethnic armed groups to engage in dialogue as the military regime endeavours to restart the country’s moribund peace process in the wake of its February 2021 coup.

Military tensions are running high between Myanmar’s military and the Karen National Union (KNU) after KNU Brigade 1 based in Mon State’s Thaton District told the regime to withdraw its troop deployments from Bilin Township in Mon State.

Fifteen Muslims and three Chin people were arrested in a forest near Ahtet Ma Htein village in Ann Township, Arakan State, and have been accused of involvement in human trafficking, according to the Ann Myoma police station.

Myanmar’s former national immunisation director, Dr. Htar Htar Lin, was sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour on April 20 on corruption charges.

The Mrauk-U branch of the Department of Archaeology and National Museum has ordered the removal of shops near Nandawyar Gon, also known as the mound of ancient palace remains, in the Mrauk-U archaeological zone.

A video of the five villagers being beaten during interrogation by Myanmar military soldiers on board a naval vessel was shared widely on social media in May of 2020.

Many of the affected houses were built about three years ago with bamboo and thatch, and thus could not withstand the strong winds, said IDPs.

Fighting between the Myanmar military and the Karenni Nationalities Defense Force (KNDF) has been intermittent and ongoing in Kayah (Karenni) State since the putsch on February 1, 2021.

The Maungdaw District Court on Thursday sentenced two men accused of having illegal ties to the Arakan Army (AA) to 10 years in prison with hard labour under Section 50 of the Counter-Terrorism Law, according to family members.