Twenty-one people were killed or injured by lightning strikes during the current rainy season, from May through this week, in Arakan State.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched attacks on junta bases at strategic locations in Chin Shwe Haw town, northern Shan State, on Friday morning.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance issued a statement on October 27 saying its members — the Arakan Army (AA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) — would join forces with other anti-junta groups to defeat Myanmar’s military regime, which it described as “a shared aspiration of the Myanmar populace.” 

Those who rely on bamboo for agriculture in western Bago Region’s Thayawady District are facing difficulties due to ongoing fighting there.
 

The Myanmar military will carry out live-fire drills in Ponnagyun Township, the latest in a series of live-fire exercises in Arakan State since early this month.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Health Ministry said that since January, it has detected 318 brands of food unsuitable for human consumption in both Myanmar’s traditional markets and being sold online.

Nearly 7,000 students failed the matriculation exam under the old curriculum in the previous academic year in Arakan State, and only 576 of them have registered to sit the matriculation exam or Grade 12 exam under the new curriculum to be held next year, according to the state education office.
 

Myanmar’s military regime is working to turn national identity cards into “smart cards”, and data collection and education is being carried out in Arakan State.
 

Among Chinese wind turbine projects to be implemented in Arakan State, the evaluation stage is reportedly nearing completion for a project in Gwa Township.
 

Myanmar’s military regime said it has committed K742.5 million for the development of agriculture, livestock breeding and small-scale industries in Arakan State.
 

Since October 24, the military regime has once again begun allowing prison visits by family members of prisoners, which had been banned since 2020 due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
 

Many acres of ripe rice plants have been destroyed by infestations in Arakan State’s Rathedaung, Kyauktaw, Mrauk-U, Minbya and Pauktaw townships, according to local farmers.
 

The United League of Arakan (ULA), the political wing of the Arakan Army (AA), which runs a parallel administration in Arakan State, said its judiciary department has yet to handle more than 2,500 complaints that it has received since last year.

A total of 687 civilians have been killed nationwide and 458 others were wounded by junta air attacks since its February 2021 coup, according to an October 23 report from Nyan Lin Thit, an independent research group monitoring Myanmar’s political situation.

Arakan State residents have called on the Myanmar military to withdraw its troops from pagodas and temples during the Thadingyut holiday so that Buddhists can freely practise religious activities at those sites.

The Sittwe District Fire Services Department has issued eviction notices to more than 20 shops at a local market in the Arakan State capital’s Mingan Ward, according to shopkeepers.

Four Muslim minors were arrested in Nganchaung Village, part of Arakan State’s Maungdaw Township, for allegedly crossing the border illegally on October 22, according to Rakhine Daily, a mouthpiece of the Arakan State military council.
 

It has been nearly a year since the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army (AA) reached an informal ceasefire in November 2022, but junta soldiers have tightened security checks on locals and travellers at security checkpoints along the Sittwe-Yangon road in recent days, locals said.
 

The Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) has advised residents of northern Arakan State to take precautions as the cyclonic storm Hamoon, originating over the Bay of Bengal, looked to be on an east-northeast trajectory.