Almost 200 Rohingya arrive by boat in Indonesia’s Aceh

Nearly two hundred Rohingya, most of them women and children, arrived by boat at Indonesia’s Aceh province on Tuesday, the chief of a local fishing community said, the latest batch of people to have fled Myanmar by sea this year.

Many members of the ethnic Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, have for years boarded rickety wooden boats to escape to Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia as well as Thailand.

Several hundred Rohingya arrived in Aceh earlier this year, and massive numbers have died at sea from disease, hunger and fatigue.

More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022, according to the UN refugee agency.