With the aim of promoting modern Arakanese poetry, a poem festival kicked off in the Arakan State town of Rathedaung on Saturday. 

Two detained village administrators in Arakan State’s Sittwe Township were released on bail on May 20 after being charged under the Forest Law, according to family members. 

A war of words between Myanmar’s military regime and the Arakan Army (AA) intensified this week, with the AA spokesman calling his regime counterpart’s latest remarks “a direct threat” to Arakanese people. 

Residents of Ale Kyun village in Dar Lat Chaung village-tract, in Arakan State’s Ann Township, were barred from tending to their farms on May 19 and were allowed to return the fields on Friday morning, according to locals. 

A local court sentenced two men from Arakan State’s Thandwe Township who have been accused of ties to the anti-regime People’s Defence Force (PDF) to three years in prison under the Counter-Terrorism Law on Friday, according to a lawyer involved. 

Civilians displaced by recent fighting in Myanmar’s Tanintharyi Region are in urgent need of medicines, according to humanitarian workers. 

Residents of Chin State’s Paletwa Township are facing severe economic and social hardships due to skyrocketing ferryboat fares when travelling from Paletwa to Kyauktaw in neighbouring Arakan State. 

Gold prices have increased steadily since the military coup, pushing down demand and increasing local pawning, according to gold shops in the Arakan State capital Sittwe. 

According to the Sittwe branch of the Myanmar Agricultural Development Bank, agricultural loan disbursements in Arakan State will amount to less than last year due to low loan repayment rates, with over K9 billion earmarked for farmers this year. 

Commodity prices have skyrocketed in Chin State’s Paletwa Township, which borders Arakan State, after months-long restrictions on the supply of food and other goods to the town imposed by the Myanmar military regime. 

A verdict in the case of five men from Kyaukseik village, Ponnagyun Township, and nearby who were detained in 2020 and charged on suspicion of having illegal ties to the Arakan Army (AA) was postponed, according to family members. 

Peace talks with ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) that have been proposed by junta chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing will continue until a positive outcome is achieved, a spokesperson for the State Administration Council (SAC) told reporters at a press conference in Naypyidaw on Thursday. 

Myanmar junta spokesman Major-General Zaw Min Tun has challenged the Arakan Army (AA), saying the armed group’s recent statements seem intended to provoke a fight. 

The Mahamuni camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Kyauktaw Township, which lost more than half of its homes in a recent fire, has announced that aid will be donated to the fire victims through a committee formed by the military council. 

More than 200 locals have been displaced by a Myanmar military incursion into Ashae Taw and Wakone villages in Dawei Township, Tanintharyi Region, according to aid workers. 

With the rainy season arriving in Myanmar, five people have died from electrocution in the Arakan State’s capital Sittwe since early May, according to local social organisations. 

Despite recent talks between Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government (NUG) in exile and the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA), the military is unlikely to open a new front of active hostilities in Arakan State, some political observers say. 

Officials from the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) say the country has been devastated by the February 2021 military coup. 

Banyan trees, vines, moss and other plants that can damage pagodas, stupas and other religious structures in the Mrauk-U cultural heritage zone will be removed using chemical herbicides, according to the Mrauk-U branch of the Department of Archaeology and National Museum.