Boat carrying 71 Rohingya refugees lands in Indonesia

A boat carrying 71 weak and hungry Rohingya Muslims fleeing from refugee camps in Bangladesh landed Thursday in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh, local officials said.

The 71 Rohingya on board included 21 women and 20 children. More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar to refugee camps in Bangladesh after an army-led crackdown in August 2017.

Myanmar security forces have been accused of mass rapes, killings and the burning of thousands of Rohingya homes.

Most of the refugees who have left the camps by sea have attempted to reach Muslim-majority Malaysia, but many have ended up in Indonesia along the way.