Cha Lu Aung — Two ethnic Mro women from Baung village in northern Maungdaw Township have been missing for nearly a week, village official Ko Aung Naing said.

On March 13, three women from the village went to a nearby farm to pick vegetables. One of the three, Ma Saung Paung, was found dead with her neck slashed in the woods near Baung village later that evening, but the two other women remain missing despite a coordinated search effort by village residents and security forces stationed in the area.

Ko Aung Naing said the families of the missing women invited monks and made a food offering for the missing women on March 18 in accordance with Buddhist tradition.

“We have already searched for them everywhere, including along the border fence. That’s why we stopped searching and did the ceremony today [March 18]. But we plan to continue searching,” he said.

An officer from the No. 5 Border Guard Force in Arakan State was trampled to death by a wild elephant on March 14 while searching for the missing women.

Ma Saung Paung was cremated in Maungdaw town on March 15, and the BGF officer Kyaw Hlaing Oo was cremated the following day.