February 7, 2025
News

21 Dead, 21 Feared Missing As Ferry Sinks In Myanmar

Twenty-one people are dead and 21 missing after a crowded double-decker passenger ferry sinked on Friday night in Myanmar, the southeast Asian nation.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Information said in a statement that the ship capsized due to bad weather conditions, around the coastal city of Sittwe. A large wave crashed into the ferry, causing it capsize near Myaybone and Myaukkyine islands.

While the cases of fatality could increase, the authorities have managed to rescue at least 167 people, according to the information ministry for Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

Pictures from the government showed rescue workers helping people — some of them women and children — off a boat onto the land, including one carried off with a bandaged head and leg.

Such fatal ferry disasters are nothing new to the region. Boat accidents due to overcrowding and bad weather are common in Myanmar’s river deltas and coastal regions. People rely on boat transport because of the lower cost and inaccessibility of many areas by road.

Last month, at least 68 people died when a packed double-decker ferry sank while on the Padma River north of neighboring Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka. A cargo vessel hit the ferry, causing it to overturn and trapping passengers on its lower deck.

Forty-five people died in an accident on the same river in August.

In May 2013, several boats carrying as many as 150 people were thought to have capsized near Myanmar’s western coast ahead of a storm approaching the area.

Those boats were carrying Rohingya, members of Myanmar’s long-suffering Muslim minority, a Thailand-based U.N. official Kirsten Mildren said at the time.

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