Mu Dra, a reporter with the Border News Agency website, was abducted by the Arakan Army and held incommunicado for over a month at the rebel group’s intelligence office in Maungdaw, a city in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
She was taken from her home in Maungdaw at about 11:00 a.m. on September 20, 2025, according to a statement from her employer, news reports and CPJ’s email communication with the outlet’s editor-in-chief, Kaung Mrat Naing.
Mu Dra was released on October 22 after intense interrogations focused on Border News Agency’s operations, staff, and underground bureau locations, Naing told CPJ. She was freed under strict surveillance of her home and on the condition that she report her movements to the rebel group, he said.
Naing told CPJ that Mu Dra reports on human rights and conflict issues in Rakhine state, including regular documentation of forced recruitment, abductions, and violence against vulnerable populations. She was allowed one family visit at the rebel group’s intelligence office but was not allowed future visits, Naing said.
Arakan Army spokesperson Khine Thu Kha did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed requests for comment sent through the group’s website. The Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group fighting for autonomy from military government control, controls 14 of Rakhine state’s 17 townships, according to news reports.
Rebel groups have targeted and detained journalists since the nation’s long-running civil war escalated following the 2021 military coup, according to CPJ’s reporting.