A 19-year-old grade 12 student from Tinma Village which is on the Kaladan River in Arakan (Rakhine) State’s Kyauktaw Township which borders Chin State.
The student, a girl who is not being named for security reasons, first became sick in Tinma Village before being moved to Kyauktaw Town Hospital for medical treatment on 24 May when her condition became worse. Unfortunately she eventually died there.
A resident of Tinma Village said: “While she was still in the village, a test was done for malaria, but the disease wasn’t detected. The healthcare system here is really weak. Even if someone has malaria, it’s hard to get an accurate diagnosis. It wasn’t until she got to Kyauktaw Hospital that they confirmed she had malaria. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to treat her, and she passed away.”
The rainy season normally runs from Mid-May to late October in Arakan State. Malaria, a mosquito borne disease is much more common during the rainy season, particularly at the beginning and end of the rainy season. The mosquitoes lay their eggs in pools of standing water that can be as small as puddles where their larvae grow before changing into mosquitoes and flying away.
There was heavy fighting around Tinma Village at the beginning of 2024 as the Arakan Army fought to take Kyauktaw Township from the junta, which they eventually managed to do on 7 February 2024.
But, the fighting left many landmines and much unexploded ordnance (UXO) littering the area around the village. This meant that villagers were afraid to clear the undergrowth around the village so there were more areas of standing water where malaria-spreading mosquitoes could breed.
This led to a rise of malaria infections in the area. At the start of the 2024 rainy season, four people from Tinma and other nearby villages such as Pyinetine and Montthanpyin died of malaria.
In areas controlled by the AA there have been more mosquitoes breeding and as a result, in those areas, the number of malaria cases and deaths have risen this rainy season. Already in 2025, between January and April, 424 malaria cases were recorded in AA-controlled townships, according to the Arakan People's Health Department, the AA’s health department which provides healthcare services in AA-controlled areas.
In the last week of April 2025, a 35-year-old male schoolteacher passed away while undergoing treatment for malaria in the AA-controlled Theakone Village, in Paletwa Township, Chin State.
The Arakan People's Health Department has issued a public health warning telling people to be cautious avoid getting bitten by mosquitoes and to get rid of any standing water where mosquitoes can breed as malaria poses a serious health threat.
