A United Nations official has said the UN country team in Myanmar “remains very concerned over continued efforts to undermine the freedom of expression and the freedom of the press through systematic imposition of restrictive policies and practices since the military took over” on February 1.

One of 19 Muslims in Maungdaw Township who entered Arakan State illegally from Bangladesh was found to have been infected with coronavirus, according to a source from the Maungdaw District People’s Hospital. 

Hundreds of onion-laden trucks are stranded at the Kanyin Chaung economic zone in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, because there are not enough motorboats to transport their cargo to Bangladesh, where they are slated for export.

South Korea will donate US$1.3 million in humanitarian aid for Myanmar, including initiatives targeting Arakan State, through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP). 

Yay Kaut and Puyit villages, which were moved because they were located in a hydropower project area in Thandwe Township, have been largely re-established elsewhere but building works have not yet finished due to financial difficulties.

The Arakan Army welcomes the release of 10 people, including the brother of AA chief Major-General Twan Mrat Naing, and will respond positively to their release, a spokesperson for the ethnic armed group told DMG. 

The deaths of four men from a bomb blast in Ponnagyun Township during the first week of June marked a grim continuation of lethal explosions in Arakan State despite a cessation of active hostilities in the region for more than seven months. 

The Arakanese Women’s Association-USA released a statement on June 9 calling for the Arakan People’s Authority to take serious action against the perpetrators of recent rape cases in Buthidaung and Mrauk-U townships. 

In Arakan State, about 200 temporary shelters for internally displaced people (IDPs) that were destroyed by a recent storm have not yet been rebuilt, according to IDP camp managers.

Ten people including the younger brother and sister of Arakan Army (AA) chief Major-General Twan Mrat Naing, as well as the AA leader’s brother-in-law, were released on June 9, according to a lawyer. 

A Maungdaw furniture shop owner who was kidnapped last month along with his son was released on June 8, though his son has yet to be seen or heard from.  

U Hla Thein, a spokesperson and attorney-general for the Arakan State Administration Council, said 17 cases of minors arrested on suspicion of illicit ties to the Arakan Army (AA) were dropped in May.

Nine people returning from Bangladesh tested positive for COVID-19 on June 8, according to the Arakan State Public Health Department. 

The recent formation of a Thandwe People’s Defense Force (TPDF) has been met with local disapproval in Thandwe Township, Arakan State, where the group described its origins as resulting from a joining of “political forces and comrades” opposed to Myanmar’s military regime.

Last month’s Cyclone Yaas destroyed more than 1,000 of the 100,000 mangrove trees planted as part of self-reliant mangrove conservation efforts in Arakan State, according to the growers. 

A 9-year-old girl at Pi Pin Yin IDP camp in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, was raped last week, with the manager of the camp demanding that the rapist be made a harsh example of in order to deter similar criminality in future. 

Seven people including Ko Aung Hlaing Win, chairman of the Moe Pyinnyar Dana Philanthropic Association in Taungup, Arakan State, were reportedly arrested by the Tatmadaw on June 5 at the Phon Nyo security checkpoint on the Taungup-Thandwe road, according to family members.

With tens of thousands of paddy acres going uncultivated in recent years due to conflict, Arakan State consumers are facing higher rice prices at the same time that the state’s rice production has fallen, according to U Shwe Tun Aung, chair of the Arakan State Rice Federation. 

With growing recognition that higher-level skills must be built around the information age and technologies of the 21st century, civil society organisations and volunteer groups in Arakan State are providing training and courses to Arakanese youths on topics such as computer literacy, English-language, human and women’s rights, and federalism.