A ship carrying people fleeing from Myanmar capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to a recovery employee and local media, and seven people have been confirmed dead and more than 30 have gone missing.
According to a farmer who assisted with the rescue operations, about 30 people have been rescued from the vessel, which was carrying 70 to 75 people from the area of Kyauk Kar, which is in an river leading the sea, on Sunday.
The packed passenger vessel set out from Kyauk Kar on Sunday at 9:30 p.m. and sank about 15 minutes after near the estuary’s lips because he feared being detained by the military, according to the farmer, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of privacy.
The cause of the accident was unclear, but the peasant said the vessel, which normally carries a maximum of 30-40 people, was overcrowded with citizens and goods, and there were strong currents in the water.
Kyauk Kar is about 520 kilometers ( 320 miles ) south of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. It is close to other villages where pro-democracy guerrillas are fighting with the Myanmar army. The villager claimed that the majority of the passengers on the boat came from the location where the fighting had been for about a week.
Myanmar is rife with violence after the army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi‘s elected government in February 2021. An armed resistance movement was started by opponents of military rule, and much of the nation is currently at war.
The resistance has been strong in the Tanintharyi region. According to a report of the local research group FE5 Tanintharyi, during September about 20 civilians were killed, 308 people were arrested by the army and about 59, 000 people were displaced by the fighting in Tanintharyi region.
After hundreds of army troops marched into the villages of Kye and Me Laung Chaung, about 10 kilometers ( 7 miles ) east of Kyauk Kar ), hundreds of army troops marched into them to attack local resistance fighters, according to Dawei Watch, an independent online news service with a base in Tanintharyi, and other local media reports that fighting has gotten worse since last Monday.
According to the reports, the military carried out airstrikes on Kye village on Wednesday and that many residents were fleeing to nearby towns and villages for safety.
Dawei Watch reported that among the boat’s passengers were students as well as people who had been trapped by the fighting on a highway.
Since the fighting have obstructed major roads, the sea route has been the main means of transportation for the area’s villages. In Myanmar, there are a lot of rivers and sea coast transportation, and accidents can sometimes result in dozens of fatalities.
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