A boat carrying 70 ethnic minority Muslim Rohingya capsized Sunday off
the western coast of Myanmar, an aid worker said. Only eight survivors
have been found.
The boat was in the Bay of Bengal and headed for Bangladesh when it went
down early Sunday, said Abdul Melik, who works for the humanitarian
organization Action Against Hunger.
The incident comes after the United Nations warned that an annual and
often deadly exodus of desperate people from Myanmar's Rakhine state
appears to have begun. The exodus usually kicks off in November, when
seas begin to calm.
As many as 1,500 people have fled in the last week, Dan McNorton, a
spokesman for the U.N. High commission for Refugees, said at a press
briefing Saturday in Geneva.
He said the agency had received several reports of drownings and was seeking details from authorities.
In Sunday's incident, Melik said the wooden boat carrying at least 70
Rohingya from Ohn Taw Gyi village left at around 3 a.m. and broke apart
about four hours later. Women, children and babies were among those on
board.
Family members and friends were scouring the Bay of Bengal and
coastlines for survivors, but so far only eight survivors have been
found, he said.
It was not immediately clear whether any bodies had been recovered.
Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist nation of 60 million, has been gripped
by sectarian violence in the last 18 months, leaving more than 240
people dead and causing 250,000 to flee from their homes. Most of the
victims have been Rohingya, a long persecuted Muslim minority in the
country, with Buddhist mobs chasing them down with machetes, iron chains
and bamboo clubs.
The U.N. says it expects this year's exodus to be on one of the biggest on record because of the violence.
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