DHAKA, Bangladesh: A Malaysian aid ship anchored off Bangladesh on Monday bringing relief goods for some of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims who’ve fled Myanmar.
Military spokesman Shaheenul Islam said Bangladesh welcomed the ship that anchored near Sonadia island off the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar.
Islam said the government was taking all the necessary procedures to unload the ship’s goods and transport them by road to Teknaf, the sub-district in Cox’s Bazar that borders Myanmar.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are camping there officially and in unregistered camps.
Another official, Ali Hossain, said the ship was very close to Sonadia island and was visible from the shore.
“We will use lighter vessels to take goods to the shore and then we will use trucks to carry them to Teknaf,” Hossain, a local government administrator, said.
The ship was carrying around 2,300 tons of food, medicine and other supplies.
Rohingya Muslims have long faced discrimination in majority-Buddhist Myanmar.
More than 300,000 have been living in Bangladesh for decades, while about 66,000 more have crossed the border since October amid renewed persecution and targeted attacks by soldiers and majority Buddhists in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
