Boats carrying Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, trying to cross the Naf River into Bangladesh to escape sectarian violence, are intercepted by Bangladeshi Coast Guard officials in Teknaf on June 18, 2012.
A boat carrying about 150 Rohingya Muslims has capsized in waters off western Myanmar, with an unknown number of people going missing, a UN agency says.
Barbara Manzi, the head of the Myanmar office at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said that the boat sank off Pauktaw township late on Monday while attempting to evacuate people ahead of a coming storm in the region.
Earlier in the day, the OCHA announced that Tropical Cyclone Mahasen is moving toward India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.
It added that the lives of millions of people are at risk in the three countries.
Å“The possibility of the cyclone hitting has added a real urgency to our plans,” said Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the United Nations refugee agency.
Å“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.”
In 2008, Cyclone Nargis killed more than 13,000 people in Myanmar.
The UN has begun the evacuation of Rohingyas living in some areas of Rakhine State such as Pauktaw.
Nearly 20,000 Rohingyas were taking shelter in makeshift camps in Pauktaw, according to UN data.
Rohingya Muslims have faced torture, neglect, and repression in Myanmar for many years.
Hundreds of Rohingyas are believed to have been killed and thousands displaced in recent attacks by extremist Buddhists.
DB/HN/HJL
This article originally appeared on : Press TV