Missing warplane, heightened fighting threaten creasefire
The Rohingya, who are Muslim, have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Myanmar, which considers them illegal settlers from Bangladesh even though their families have lived there for generations.
The conditions at home - and lack of job opportunities - have sparked one of the biggest exoduses of boat people since the Vietnam War.
Chris Lewa, director of the nonprofit Arakan Project, which has been monitoring boat departures and arrivals for more than a decade, estimates more than 100,000 men, women and children have boarded ships since mid-2012.
Most are trying to reach Malaysia, but recent regional crackdowns on human trafficking networks have sent brokers and agents into hiding, making it impossible for migrants to disembark - in some cases even after family members have paid $2,000 or more for their release, she said.
Lewa believes up to 7,000 Rohingya and Bangaldeshis are still on small and large boats in the Malacca Strait and nearby international waters.
Tightly confined, and with limited access to food and clean
water, their health is deteriorating, she said, adding that dozens of deaths have been reported.
In the last two days, 1,600 Rohingya have washed to shore in Malaysia and Indonesia in seven boats.
Thailand has long been considered a regional hub for human traffickers.
The tactics of brokers and agents started changing in November as authorities began tightening security on land a move apparently aimed at appeasing the US as it prepares to release its annual Trafficking in Persons report next month. RABAT/CAIRO: A Moroccan F-16 warplane has gone missing while on a mission with Saudi-led forces in Yemen, Morocco’s military said on Monday, and Yemen’s dominant Houthi militia said regional tribesmen shot down the aircraft.
The disappearance of the Moroccan jet and intensifying duels of heavy-weapons fire across the border between the Iran-allied Houthis and Saudi forces could endanger a five-day humanitarian truce due to start in Yemen on Tuesday.
“One of the F-16s of the Royal Armed Force put at the disposal of the coalition led by Saudi Arabia to restore the legitimacy in Yemen went missing on Sunday at 6 pm local time,” Morocco’s military said in a statement.
The Houthis’ official news channel al-Masirah said on Monday that anti-aircraft guns had downed an F-16 over in the remote Wadi Nashour area in Saada, a Houthi stronghold bordering on Saudi Arabia.
The channel showed gun-toting tribesmen on a rocky hillside pumping their fists and chanting, “Death to America!” One man, holding a piece of what looked like aircraft wreckage, said: “God felled this plane. Even though our weapons are basic and modest, we’ll shoot down all their planes.”
There was no word on the fate of the pilots. A Yemeni Twitter account published photos of what it described as the body of one of the pilots.
One person was killed and four wounded on Monday in the renewed bombardment, the civil defence department said. The latest fatality brings to 11 the death toll in Saudi Arabia in the past week.