The latest disaster came as a UN visit to Myanmar’s conflict-battered Rakhine state was postponed Thursday, thwarting efforts to reach the epicentre of violence for the first time since the start of the massive Rohingya exodus.
At the scene of the accident, witnesses and survivors said the boat overturned just yards from the coast after apparently hitting a submerged object and was later washed ashore in two parts along with the victims’ bodies.
“They drowned before our eyes,” said Mohammad Sohel, a local shopkeeper. “Minutes later, the waves washed the bodies to the beach.”
One distraught survivor said he had set off for Bangladesh from a coastal village in Myanmar late Wednesday with his wife, who was killed in the disaster along with one of his children.
“The boat hit something underground as it came close to the beach. Then it overturned,” Nurus Salam told AFP.
Another survivor who was seen weeping on the beach told an AFP reporter at the scene that her parents and children were missing.
Local police constable Fazlul Karim told AFP 14 bodies had so far been washed ashore, and there were fears the number could rise.
The UN said more than half a million refugees had now crossed into Bangladesh from Myanmar since Aug 25, when attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts prompted a military crackdown.
It said the flow of new arrivals had slowed and the new figure of 501,800 – up from around 480,000 – was due mainly to the counting of refugees not previously included in the tally.
