Yangon - At least 21 Rohingya people, including nine children, drowned after their boat capsized off the coast of Myanmar, a rights group confirmed on Wednesday.
The boat, carrying over 60 Rohingya, capsized due to rough seas near Sittwe Township on Tuesday.
“There are conflicting reports of the precise number of people on board but local reports say that at least 15 are still missing,” said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project which monitors Rohingya migrants.
According to Lewa, the boat was travelling from an internally displaced persons camp in Pauktaw township to Sitwe to buy supplies and had received government permission to do so.
The authorities in Myanmar have imposed a travel ban on much of the Rohingya population after sectarian conflict broke out in 2012.
The Muslim Rohingya are not considered by the government as an indigenous ethnic group of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, leaving many of the more than 1-million-strong group stateless.
Sporadic clashes and alleged persecution since then have left around 300 000 Rohingya in need of humanitarian aid, including 140 000 still living in camps meant to be temporary, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
DPA