Civil society organizations and parliamentarians were among a group of protesters at Yangon’s Maha Bandula Park last week who called on the government to immediately end its internet blackout in parts of Arakan State.

A proposal urging the state government to suspend collection on agricultural loans in areas where farmers have faced conflict-related difficulties was submitted to the Arakan State legislature on December 24.

Three officers from the Immigration and National Registration Department based in the Taung Bazar area of Buthidaung Township have disappeared while travelling by boat in northern Arakan State, Buthidaung Township administrator confirmed.

Amid concerns that women and children have not been adequately protected during the armed conflicts and natural disasters that have plagued Arakan State, a local women’s affairs working group was formed on December 22 to assist them.

Officials from a fish cracker factory near Kin Pinlei Nar village in Kyauk Phyu Township have vowed to make technical alterations so that nearby residents suffer fewer harmful effects from its operations.

Clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army (AA) at Taung Nhit Lone Kyaw Mountain in Myebon Township on December 23 have forced more than 1,200 residents from nearby Sa Nyin village to flee their homes.

Two residents of Phar Wat Chaung village in Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, were charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law and remanded into custody by a court in Buthidaung Township on December 23.

The Arakan Army ethnic armed group is attempting to clamp down on the sale and use of illicit narcotics in Arakan State, posting letters of warning in some of the state’s townships.

Family members said they suspect that the pair, who went missing while harvesting their paddy fields near Mt. Yay Htoe in Kam Htaung Gyi, were taken by Tatmadaw troops because a military contingent from Light Infantry Division 66 was stationed near the area.

More than 400 people from Ywar Thar Yar and Chone Chaung villages in Arakan State’s Myebon Township are facing food shortages as the Tatmadaw has prohibited them from bringing foodstuffs and other supplies into their villages.

Two fishermen from northern Arakan State’s Kyauktaw Township were allegedly beaten by members of a military contingent as they were returning home from a trip to a local market, with one sent to the township hospital due to serious injuries.

A man from Kyauk Yan village in Arakan State’s Rathedaung Township has been held in military custody for more than a week, but with no further information about his situation yet made available, family members are expressing concern for his safety.

Two men from Hpa Wut Chaung village in Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township were detained last week by a military column near Thone Se Ta Bone Pagoda in neighboring Buthidaung Township, family members said.

Two young people from Ywathit village, part of the Melat Moung village-tract in Arakan State’s Ann Township, were allegedly shot dead by the Tatmadaw on 17 December, according to the victims’ family members.

With an Internet shutdown in some Arakan State townships now in place for over six months, one of the world’s longest blackouts of its kind continues to prompt criticism from civil society organizations.

A village administrator in Arakan State’s Minbya Township, accused by the Tatmadaw of being an Arakan Army (AA) cadre and found dead earlier this month, had no such ties to the ethnic armed group, according to the dead man’s family and an AA spokesperson.

Though the harvest season is upon farmers in Arakan State, a local from Minbya Township says many are struggling to reap their paddy with fighting ongoing nearby.

Fighting between the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army may intensify in Arakan State and the conflict zone could widen, the AA said in a statement released on 17 December.

“Political dialogues are emerging now to set basic policies to build a democratic federal Union in line with the wishes of all people in Myanmar. At this time, does it really require the use of violent means, which harm people?” asked Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.