Indonesia navy ship tows boat with Rohingya refugees to port

By RAHMAT MIRZA
Associated Press

LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia (AP) — An Indonesian navy ship is towing a boat carrying 120 Rohingya Muslims into port after it had drifted for days off the country’s northernmost province of Aceh. The boat was reportedly leaking and had a damaged engine. Efforts to rescue its passengers, who are overwhelmingly women and children, began immediately after Indonesia’s government on Wednesday said it would allow them to disembark because the conditions on the boat were so severe. The boat was first sighted by local fishermen on Sunday about 60 miles (96 kilometers) off the coast of Bireuen. More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from Buddhist-majority Myanmar since August 2017, when the Myanmar military launched a clearance operation in response to attacks by a rebel group.