(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - A boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims has sunk off the coast of Myanmar amid of an evacuation due to an upcoming cyclone, according to the UN. The storm has raised fears that many areas along the coast, where Rohingya Muslims and other displaced people live temporarily in camps, might be in serious danger.
Barbara Manzi, head of the Myanmar office of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Reuters that the boat left Pauktaw township in Rakhine State as the passengers "were travelling to another camp ahead of the cyclone", but it hit rocks and sunk late on Monday evening. However, the number of missing persons remains unknown.
Around 140,000 displaced people live in camps in Western Myanmar. The majority of them are the stateless Rohingya Muslims, who left their homes last year due to outbreaks of religious violence. The Myanmar government denies citizenship to the Rohingya Muslims and they are often considered as immigrants from Bangladesh.
The UN last week warned that the tropical Cyclone Mahasen could present "life-threatening conditions" to the displaced populations living in the coast of Myanmar.
Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency stated: "The possibility of the cyclone hitting has added a real urgency to our plans. We're building temporary shelters made out of bamboo which will hopefully stand the heavy rains, but with a cyclone, you just don't know what will hold up."
The cyclone is expected to hit the Myanmar-Bangaldesh border on Thursday night, according to Myanmar's Department of Meteorology.
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Barbara Manzi, head of the Myanmar office of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told Reuters that the boat left Pauktaw township in Rakhine State as the passengers "were travelling to another camp ahead of the cyclone", but it hit rocks and sunk late on Monday evening. However, the number of missing persons remains unknown.
Around 140,000 displaced people live in camps in Western Myanmar. The majority of them are the stateless Rohingya Muslims, who left their homes last year due to outbreaks of religious violence. The Myanmar government denies citizenship to the Rohingya Muslims and they are often considered as immigrants from Bangladesh.
The UN last week warned that the tropical Cyclone Mahasen could present "life-threatening conditions" to the displaced populations living in the coast of Myanmar.
Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency stated: "The possibility of the cyclone hitting has added a real urgency to our plans. We're building temporary shelters made out of bamboo which will hopefully stand the heavy rains, but with a cyclone, you just don't know what will hold up."
The cyclone is expected to hit the Myanmar-Bangaldesh border on Thursday night, according to Myanmar's Department of Meteorology.
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