UN: 26 Rohingya refugees died at sea making perilous journey

By RAHMAT MIRZA and NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

PIDIE, Indonesia (AP) — A U.N. agency says at least 26 Rohingya Muslims had died in dire conditions during a month at open sea while making a dangerous voyage that brought scores of others to safety in Indonesia. Exhausted women and children were among 185 people who disembarked from a rickety wooden boat on Monday in a coastal village in Indonesia’s Aceh province. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said that survivors among them told the agency that 26 people died during the long journey. It said more than 2,000 people are reported to have taken risky sea journeys in the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal this year and nearly 200 have reportedly died.