UN warns that 2 boats adrift in the Andaman Sea with 400 Rohingya aboard desperately need rescue

By GRANT PECK
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Aid groups and the United Nations say an estimated 400 Rohingya Muslims believed to be aboard two boats adrift in the Andaman Sea could die if more is not done to rescue them. The number of Rohingyas fleeing by boat, usually from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, has been rising since last year due to cuts to food rations and a spike in gang violence. A spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency said all aboard the two stranded vessels, including many children, could die if they are not rescued. More than 200 have died this year. About 740,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Buddhist-majority Myanmar to Bangladesh since 2017 after a brutal counterinsurgency campaign.