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Another Rohingya boat sinks: 10 dead, dozens missing

WION Web Team
BangladeshUpdated: Oct 16, 2017, 07:27 AM IST
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More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August 25, 2017 -- that is half the country's Rohingya population. Photograph:(Reuters)

Ten people are dead and dozens missing after another boat carrying Rohingyas fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh sank in the Naf river.

The Naf separates Myanmar from Bangladesh.

The boat was carrying an estimated 50 people when it went down in the estuary of the Naf river that divides the two countries, Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) area commander Lieutenant Colonel S.M. Ariful Islam told AFP.

The deaths have added to the list of over two hundred caused by about a dozen boat sinkings. 

Myanmar has been wracked by violence since August 25, when Rohingya insurgents attacked police posts in the country's western Rakhine state.

In response, Myanmar security forces have carried out what the United Nations recently described as a "textbook case of ethnic cleansing." 

More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar since August 25 -- that is half the country's Rohingya population. 

The Rohingya are Muslim, and are reviled in mainly Buddhist Myanmar. 

They do not have citizenship rights and are thought of, in Myamar, as "illegal immigrants" from Bangladesh.