Regional election commission members last week held a two-day workshop on potential security challenges if the 2020 election is held in conflict-affected areas of Arakan State.

Three civilians were killed and eight others were injured by artillery and small arms fire as two villages in Mrauk-U Township, Arakan State, were the latest to suffer from spillover of the ongoing conflict between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army on February 29.

A former village administrator was killed last week in Pan Zi Muslim village, Buthidaung Township, according to a member of the victim’s family.

The event, jointly organized by BNI Multimedia Group and Development Media Group (DMG), was aimed at conveying the role of the media, helping media professionals review and assess the state of their industry, and identifying so-called “fake news” circulating in the social media sphere.

Three people died after drinking a concoction of alcohol and coconut sap at Kapaingchaung village in Pauktaw Township, Arakan State, on February 27, said U Chan Tha, the village administrator.

A woman was found dead in her home with her neck slashed in the Arakan State capital Sittwe’s Ohe Tan Ward, at about 11:30 a.m. on February 28.

The closure of 21 examination centres amid conflict in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, has caused 489 students to miss the Grade 5 and Grade 9 testing periods, according to the Mrauk-U District education office.

A Tatmadaw regiment intercepted a ferryboat commuting between Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township and Paletwa Township in Chin State and arrested six men on February 26, according to family members of the detainees.

One woman was killed and four people were injured in a shooting-shelling incident in Minbya town, Arakan State, after the Tatmadaw clashed with Arakan Army (AA) troops nearby, according to family members of the victims.

Two men were arrested for allegedly burning to death a man from Khone Baung village in Arakan State’s Kyaukphyu Township, deputy police officer Kyaw Zaw from the Kyaukphyu Myoma police station said.

A passenger boat travelling to Kyauktaw from Paletwa in Chin State was fired upon at around 12:30 p.m. on February 27 and four people aboard the vessel were injured, according to passengers on the boat.

A Muslim man was killed when he stepped on a landmine on the afternoon of February 26 as he was taking his cattle to graze near the Nyaung Chaung border police checkpoint in Buthidaung Township, northern Arakan State.

A woman from Kyaung Taung village in Arakan State’s Mrauk-U Township died of a heart attack that her family says was caused by an artillery shell blast at about 9 p.m. on February 26.

“The number of IDPs is increasing day by day but we have only three toilets. We need many toilets. We are building some small toilets urgently,” camp official Ko Tun Myat Win said.

Daw Myat Wun Yee, 47, was hospitalized with thigh wounds due to shots fired as she went to pasture there, according to a local who asked not to be named for security reasons.

The Arakan Army (AA) said it released a junior engineer, who had been detained by the ethnic armed group for 120 days, at about 3:30 p.m. on February 24, having determined that he did not have any affiliation with the military.

With fighting between the Tatmadaw and Arakan Army showing no sign of abating and IDP numbers continuing to rise, more shelters are needed, and existing bamboo huts built at some IDP camps last year are in need of repair.

The Tatmadaw has denied accusations that its troops were responsible for wounds suffered by two women and a young man in Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, with the military saying the victims were instead hurt by the Arakan Army (AA).

Nine participants of a demonstration demanding the restoration of internet access in nine townships of Arakan and Chin states are facing charges under the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law, with five of the nine arrested on February 24, the Arakan Students Union said.