In conflict-hit Arakan State, where trade and economic activities remain severely restricted, local entrepreneurs are struggling to keep basic consumer goods industries alive.

Amid escalating armed conflict in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township, both the Myanmar military and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) are reported to have increasingly detained local residents.

Ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), including the Three Brotherhood Alliance, currently control about 50 percent of the Mandalay-Muse trade route — one of Myanmar’s most important commercial links with China — according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar (ISP-Myanmar).

Muslim advocacy organizations abroad have called for self-determination in Arakan State, asserting Rohingya and other Muslims should have the right to self-governance.

Heavy clashes have broken out between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Muslim armed group ARSA (Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) in northern Maungdaw Township, near the Bangladesh border, according to local residents.

Myanmar Women in Media (MWiM), Burmese Women’s Union (BWU) and Sisters 2 Sisters issued a statement on October 3 urging authorities and armed groups to respect the freedom of expression and safety of media workers.
 

Voter lists for the upcoming junta-sponsored elections are being posted at ward and village administrator offices and election commission offices in 102 townships still under the control of Myanmar’s military regime.
 

An estimated one in four youths across Myanmar, nearly 4 million people, are unemployed and their futures are on hold, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on October 2.
 

More than 200 Arakanese and allied civil society groups have sent an open letter to the United Nations and international diplomats, urging official recognition of the United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) as the legitimate government of Arakan State.

Myanmar’s military regime is continuously attacking towns, and has recaptured some, along the Mandalay-Muse road, a major Chinese trade route controlled by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) in northern Shan State.
 

The villagers, nine men and two women, were arrested by the military regime on charges of supplying food to the Arakan Army (AA) and the People’s Defence Forces (PDF).
 

More than 200 diaspora, community and rights groups from Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, the US and Europe have issued an open letter calling on the United Nations and member state ambassadors to take "urgent, principled and impartial" action on multiple crises affecting Arakan State and adjoining Bangladeshi border areas.

From May 2024 through the end of September 2025, at least 36 civilians were killed and no fewer than 11 others injured in Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships along the Arakan-Bangladesh border due to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), according to figures compiled by DMG.

At least 70 civilians were killed or injured in Arakan State and Paletwa Township, Chin State, in September due to junta airstrikes, artillery fire, gunfire, and landmine explosions, according to figures compiled by DMG.

Myanmar’s military regime has been carrying out a series of attacks in recent days on towns in Arakan State and Paletwa in Chin State, which are controlled by the Arakan Army (AA).
 

A child was killed and two other people were injured in Kyetyoeseik Village on Musel Island in Rathedaung Township when artillery shells fired by junta battalions in Sittwe, the Arakan State capital still controlled by Myanmar’s military regime, fell and exploded in the village.
 

An independent investigation by the Arakan Civil Society Forum (ACSF) has found no evidence to support allegations that the Arakan Army (AA) massacred more than 600 Muslim villagers in Htan Shauk Khan, Buthidaung Township, in May 2024.

The military junta has deployed thousands of troops in an attempt to defend Nat Yekan, the last remaining strategic hill under its control along the An-Padan road, according to battlefield sources.

Security personnel from the Arakan Army (AA) discovered the bodies of six locals on 28 September in a banana grove near Upper Inn Chaung Village, close to Border Post 56 along the Arakan-Bangladesh frontier. The victims had reportedly been abducted and executed by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA).