The government vows to ensure that there are no food shortages in Arakan State as the state grapples with an ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said on August 28 at a virtual meeting on efforts to combat the pandemic in Arakan State.

The Rakhine Ethnics Congress plans to distribute radio handsets to camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State townships struggling to get information about COVID-19 due to government restrictions on internet access, according to Ko Zaw Zaw Tun, secretary of the REC. 

Voting for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State will depend on the security situation as the November 8 poll approaches, according to Daw Tin Hlaing, chairperson of the Arakan State election subcommission. 

A man was shot dead Wednesday night in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, according to the deceased’s family members, who have accused Tatmadaw soldiers of killing him.

A woman was killed and three women were wounded when an artillery shell allegedly fired by the military landed and exploded in Apaukwa village, part of Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township, on August 27.

Cargo trucks are being allowed to carry on with limited disruption to their normal operations in the gateway township of Ann, in order to avoid goods shortages in Arakan State during the ongoing flare-up of COVID-19, according to the Ann Township administrator.

Identification cards are being issued in villages for Arakanese who may lose their right to vote for lack of the IDs, despite their names being included in voters’ lists, according to the Arakan State election subcommission.

The Arakan State government and civil society organisations have agreed to cooperate to fulfill the needs of quarantine centres in Sittwe, said Ko Zaw Zaw Tun from the Arakan Humanitarian Coordination Team.

Twenty-two more doctors and nurses temporarily assisting medical staff at Sittwe General Hospital arrived in the Arakan State capital on August 25, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.  

The Myanmar Rice Federation on August 25 donated 3,000 bags of rice to the Arakan State government to be distributed at facility quarantine centres in the state, according to members of the MRF.

Three out of four residents of Paletwa Township, Chin State, detained by the Arakan Army last month were released on August 25, according to the Chin State government. 

Local authorities will likely face difficulties accommodating patients if the number of coronavirus cases in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State, surpasses 20, officials said. 

Only a few hundred Muslims in northern Arakan State are included on voter lists for the upcoming general election, according to locals, although the Muslim populations in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships are magnitudes higher than the rosters currently enumerate. 

The government will provide COVID-19 relief payments of K20,000 (US$14.80) to households reliant on irregular incomes in Sittwe, Arakan State, to supplement their livelihoods amid an outbreak of the virus that has locked down the state capital. 

At least five Muslim candidates in Arakan State have reportedly been rejected in their bids to contest Myanmar’s upcoming general election. 

A power cable linking Arakan State’s Rathedaung and Buthidaung townships has been severed, but repair of the broken line cannot be undertaken due to regional instability, said U Hein Moe Htet, an electrical engineer in Maungdaw District. 

The number of COVID-19 patients in Buthidaung Township, Arakan State, had reached four as of 8 p.m. on August 24, according to a statement from the Ministry of Health and Sports, with that total including one high school student. 

At least 10 civil society organisations from across Myanmar including a coalition of CSOs in Arakan State issued a joint statement on August 25 calling on the government and the Tatmadaw to end human right abuses in Arakan State amid a recent spate of coronavirus infections in the state. 

The Tatmadaw says it will extend its unilateral ceasefire until September 30 in order to facilitate efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and honour its obligations under recent peace agreements, but the extension notably does not include Arakan State, which is grappling with both conflict and a COVID-19 outbreak.