The inhabitants of 27 houses built within a compound designated for religious purposes in Sittwe have been given three months to move from the area, but they are struggling to relocate amid the COVID-19 pandemic, residents said.

More military forces are not deployed to Arakan State because the Tatmadaw is trying to prevent further clashes with the Arakan Army, said Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, the chairman of the Tatmadaw True News Information Team.

Three youths charged under Section 19(a) of the Peaceful Assembly Law over a human rights demonstration in the Arakan State capital earlier this month appeared before the Sittwe Township Court on December 30. 

Some internally displaced people (IDPs) who had returned home are back at the IDP camps where they were previously sheltering as they are worried about new clashes between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army in Arakan State, residents said.  

Family members have said that the Tatmadaw abducted 18 villagers from Tinmagyi and Tinmathit villages in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, earlier this year. However, the military knows nothing about any arrests under those circumstances, Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun maintained at a press conference on December 30. 

The National League for Democracy (NLD) in Arakan State on Tuesday called again on the Arakan Army (AA) to immediately release three of the party’s candidates whom the armed group abducted in October. 

Mrauk-U District police have questioned the families of 18 Tinma villagers, who have been considered missing and detained by the Tatmadaw more than nine months ago, for the first time. 

The National League for Democracy’s plan to meet with ethnic political parties will give priority to Kachin and Mon parties, said Dr. Myo Nyunt, spokesperson for the NLD. 

Several station hospitals across a majority of Arakan State’s 17 townships do not have doctors, according to Dr. Sai Win Zaw Hlaing, head of the Arakan State Department of Public Health.

A house fire broke out at Shan Kone village in Ann Township, Arakan State, late Monday evening, destroying six homes and the Lauk-tu (Chin) Literature and Culture Committee office, residents said.

The Sittwe Township municipality is planning to relocate its primary rubbish dumpsite following an increase in the number of houses and squatters near the current landfill, alongside a rise in waste volume, according to the deputy director of the township municipality, U Kyaw Moe.   

What is believed to have been an “unnecessary” piece of a Chinese spacecraft fell into the sea near Arakan State’s Thandwe and Manaung townships on December 27, locals said.

The Arakanese Women’s Lawyers Association has reportedly been formed to protect women from human rights abuses amid the ongoing armed conflict in Arakan State.

Field investigations into complaints of human rights abuses by locals in Arakan State could not be carried out amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to U Hla Myint, chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC).

Some camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Myebon Township, Arakan State, are in dire need of food and warm clothing amid the region’s cool season, camp managers have said.  

Many conflict-affected people in Arakan State are struggling to repay loans due to the coronavirus pandemic, low incomes and unemployment, according to a statement from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA Myanmar).

A total of 20 child rape cases were reported in Arakan State from January to December 26, four times the number of cases last year, according to figures from the Legal Clinic Myanmar (LCM).

The Rakhine Women Network says it will provide sanitary pads for women and girls at camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State as some camps report that current provisions from donors are insufficient. 

The free expression advocacy group Athan has condemned the sentencing of an Arakanese youth to five years in prison for allegedly instigating attacks against Myanmar’s military, calling the punishment a violation of human rights.