Homes in Jaithar village, in Arakan State’s Thandwe Township, will be forcibly demolished if they are not moved within the next two weeks, according to locals. 

Seventeen ethnic armed groups are likely to attend peace talks invited by the Myanmar junta chief, Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the State Administration Council (SAC), told a press conference on Wednesday. 

Fighting between the Myanmar military and coalition forces headed by the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) has been raging since April 26 along the Dawei-Hteekhee road near the Thai-Myanmar border, according to a local source. 

Former State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) government has been sentenced to an additional five years in prison by Myanmar’s military junta under the Anti-Corruption Law, according to sources close to the court. 

Only 7 percent of Arakan State farmers have paid back agricultural loans that they took out last year, according to the state branch of the Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank. 

Khami National Day was commemorated at a Buddhist monastery in Sittwe on Wednesday. Organisers said the event was held with the aim of fostering unity among ethnic Khami people residing across Arakan State.  

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are calling for greater protections and livelihood support for people with disabilities in Myanmar, whom advocates say have yet to fully benefit from legislation passed years ago and intended to promote the wellbeing of the disabled. 

Some urban wards in the Arakan State capital Sittwe are facing water shortages as the two major lakes supplying the city are drying up, according to local residents.

A Myanmar military contingent entered the villages of Sabarhtar and Aungzeya in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan State, on Tuesday afternoon, according to uneasy local residents.

The Consumer Affairs Department of the military regime’s Commerce Ministry has threatened legal action against palm oil distributors who unfairly increase prices or keep large stockpiles for the purpose of speculating on the edible oil market.

Junta security forces have stepped up inspections on passenger and cargo trucks at Kyauktan checkpoint, located on the Yangon-Sittwe highway in Sittwe Township.

Chin civil society organisations held a two-day meeting on April 23 and 24 to build a common national identity agreement between the Chin ethnic group and subgroups living in Arakan State.

Locals want Kyaukmyaung Station Hospital in Arakan State’s Ann Township to be opened as soon as possible, as about 10,000 people from 11 villages in the area are expecting to rely on the facility for healthcare services once it is operational. 

The Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) says it will face dissolution rather than submit to an order from the junta-controlled Union Election Commission (UEC) to have the party’s finances audited at the UEC headquarters.

The Ann Township police force has ordered houses and shops occupying the former site of the township central police station to move by May 21.

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.