Prospects for peace in Arakan State are waning as the number of internally displaced people (IDPs) continues to rise and conflict between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army escalates, the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) said in a statement on April 23.

COVID-19 test samples taken from war-torn Arakan State will henceforth be sent to Yangon by air, according to the state Department of Public Health, as 20 nose and mouth swabs were flown to the National Health Laboratory in the commercial capital on Wednesday.

Four people were killed and six were injured by heavy weapons fire on April 22 in Paletwa Township, Chin State, according to organisations that assist internally displaced people (IDPs) in the region.

A third straight day of gunfire in Arakan State’s Minbya Township killed four people and injured six others on the evening of April 22, according to locals.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has vowed an investigation into an attack that led to the death of a local World Health Organization (WHO) employee early this week in Minbya Township, Arakan State.

A spacious and open-air area has been arranged for greengrocers who typically sell their produce in more crowded Sittwe market confines in order to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 contagion, said the local Development Affairs Committee.

A vehicle carrying medical products was fired upon in Arakan State’s Minbya Township on April 21, with the second such attack in two days killing the driver and injuring another person, according to Pyithu Hluttaw lawmaker U Hla Aung Nyunt.

A civilian from May Lwan village in Arakan State’s Minbya Township was shot dead by the Tatmadaw on April 21, the victim’s father U Kyaw Hla Oo told DMG.

Thirty-three out of 38 people recently arrested by the Tatmadaw in Ponnagyun Township, Arakan State, were released on April 20, according to local residents. The administrator of Kyauk Seik village, where the arrests were made, was among those freed.

One health worker was killed and another injured after the World Health Organization (WHO) vehicle they were travelling in was shot at in Arakan State’s Minbya Township on Monday evening. The incident took place at one end of the Rar Maung Bridge, close to Rar Maung Zet jetty, at around 5 p.m.

Eight-hundred Muslims who were released in a recent presidential pardon were sent back to a handful of Arakan State townships from Yangon on April 20, according to the state immigration department.

A batch of swabs from people undergoing medical monitoring in Arakan State will be flown to Yangon on April 23, days after a World Health Organization (WHO) vehicle transporting the samples to the commercial capital for testing was attacked, according to the Arakan State Public Health Department.

The Office of the State Counsellor on April 21 published a statement signed by Daw Aung Suu Kyi that praised military personnel engaged in hostilities with the Arakan Army, adding that her government was “deeply saddened” by civilian casualties in Arakan and Chin states.

Three motorboat drivers who returned to Arakan State after transporting goods from the Maungdaw border trade center to Bangladesh are undergoing a 21-day facility quarantine at Basic Education High School No. 2 in Maungdaw.

Three bodies were found with gunshot wounds in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, on April 17 and 18, according to local residents, in the days after several civilians were wounded in a shooting incident in Kyauktaw town that also took the life of a 14-year-old boy. 

A total of 343 inmates of Sittwe Prison, including four political prisoners, were released on April 17 in a mass presidential pardon coinciding with the Thingyan holiday.

A 14-year-old boy who was among six civilians injured by gunfire in Arakan State’s Kyauktaw town succumbed to his wounds and was pronounced dead at Kyauktaw Hospital hours after the shooting on Thursday evening, according to a local resident.

A communique issued by the Arakan State COVID-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee indicates that district-level committees formed to combat the deadly virus will arrange home and community-based facility quarantines for people returning to Arakan State from other parts of Myanmar.