Pulitzer Center - Kyaw Hsan Hlaing

Pulitzer Center • January 6 2024

To Fight the Coronavirus, Myanmar Needs a Cease-Fire in Rakhine

YANGON, Myanmar—On Aug. 16, Myanmar’s health ministry announced the country’s first locally transmitted COVID-19 case in a month in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state. By Sept. 1, the number of confirmed cases across the state had risen to 393, while as of Sept. 3, the whole country has recorded 1,111 cases since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Pulitzer Center • January 6 2024

For Those Displaced in Myanmar's Rakhine State, COVID Adds Another Layer of Fear

Before a COVID-19 outbreak hit Myanmar’s Rakhine State in mid-August, Thiri Kyaw, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, already had a lot to worry about. Displaced by civil war between the Myanmar military and the rebel Arakan Army, she has faced uncertainty about her daily survival since fleeing her village in March of last year.

Pulitzer Center • January 6 2024

Rakhine: Where the Military Is More Feared Than the Coronavirus

Yangon, Myanmar — On the night of September 3, Thar Hla* was restless, and it was not just because he was sharing a concrete floor with approximately 70 people. "After hearing loud firing, I felt like the quarantine centre wasn’t safe," the 32-year-old told Al Jazeera by phone from his hometown in Kyauktaw in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. "That night, no one could sleep."

In the morning, they all left.

"Everyone in the quarantine centre went home," Thar Hla said.

Nearby, local villagers co

Pulitzer Center • January 6 2024

In Myanmar’s Rakhine State, Trust in Armed Group Grows as Election Hopes Fade

Many Arakanese in Myanmar’s Rakhine State were optimistic in the lead-up to the country's first openly contested elections in a quarter of a century, in 2015. There’s a stark difference five years on, as 8 November polls are clouded by an escalating civil war and voting cancellations across most of the state.

Pulitzer Center • January 6 2024

People in Parts of Myanmar Are Living Under the World's Longest Internet Shutdown. It's Putting Lives in Danger

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing grew up in Myanmar's conflict-torn Rakhine State, where his family and friends are among more than 1.4 million people affected by a prolonged internet ban. In place since June 2019 in parts of Rakhine and neighboring Chin State, the ban was imposed by the government amid escalating fighting with an ethnic armed group.

Pulitzer Center • January 6 2024

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing is an Arakanese student, researcher, and activist focusing peace, human rights, and social justice in Myanmar's Arakan (Rakhine) State. He attempts to express the ground situation of armed conflict of Arakan State to the international community.