‘Cries of children were unbearable’: Rescued Rohingya refugees recall ordeal at sea

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Updated 29 December 2022
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‘Cries of children were unbearable’: Rescued Rohingya refugees recall ordeal at sea

  • Arab News team reconnects refugees with family after they reach Indonesia
  • Indonesian fishermen helped rescue 174 Rohingya adrift at sea for weeks

JAKARTA/DHAKA: When Hatemon Nesa boarded a wooden ship in Cox’s Bazar in late November, she left a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh in the hope of finding a better life for her young daughters.

She set out on her journey with her five-year-old, leaving the older daughter with family members at the camp. She believed that the voyage would be successful and that they would soon be reunited in another country.

But the boat engines broke down about a week later and she, her daughter and another 172 refugees, mostly women and children, were left drifting in the Andaman Sea for weeks, with no food or water.

No regional country intervened despite UN calls for rescue last week. They were finally brought to safety by fishermen when their boat entered Indonesian waters.

On Wednesday, efforts of an Arab News team helped reconnect Nesa with her family, who had not been able to reach her for weeks and feared the worst.  

“Allah almighty saved our lives,” Nesa said in a video call from a shelter in Indonesia’s northern Aceh province, as she spoke to her brother and mother who remained in Cox’s Bazar.

“We were starving while floating on the boat ... I couldn't eat anything. If I held a water bottle in hand, it would have been stolen. I could drink water only when there was rain.”

Nesa and her daughter, Umme Salima, were among the refugees who reached the coastal village of Muara Tiga in Aceh’s Pidie district on Monday.

The International Organization for Migration said they were in “very poor health condition” and many were suffering severe dehydration and malnutrition.

“The rice and lentil you fed me, with that energy I traveled up to Indonesia,” Nesa told her mother as both burst into tears during the call.

Whenever there was another ship in sight, she and other refugees on the boat would scream for help. But for weeks their cries fell on deaf ears.

“We shouted so much and waved our hands like anything. At one point it felt like our hands would fall off our bodies,” Nesa said.

Her relative, Rahena, 19, who was also on the boat, recalled how they were floating for days. “The cries of children due to hunger were unbearable,” she said, adding that at least 20 people onboard had died.

No help came when their boat entered Malaysian waters earlier this month. Neither did any come when it crossed into Indian waters, despite Nesa’s brother Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, a Rohingya activist in Cox’s Bazar, appealing for rescue. 

As the drifting Rohingya entered Indonesian territory, authorities repeatedly said they could not locate their boat. Local villagers then caught sight of them and organized help.

“From what I’ve seen, the eagerness of the public (to help) is extraordinary,” Nasruddin, coordinator from Geutanyoe Foundation, an Aceh-based humanitarian organization, told Arab News. “This is something that we need to appreciate and commend.”

It was not the first time that Indonesian fishermen would join to help the refugees, taking them to safety and providing necessary assistance.

Nasruddin said around 600 Rohingya have reached Aceh since March this year.

Nesa and her little daughter’s journey is not over as Indonesia is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention, meaning they cannot claim asylum. For the time being, however, they are safe and again in touch with their family.

“With the help of Arab News I got hold of my sister again and established communications with her after landing in Indonesia,” her brother said. “I want to convey my heartfelt thanks.”


Swedish intelligence lowers terror threat level

Updated 2 sec ago
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Swedish intelligence lowers terror threat level

STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s intelligence service said Friday it was lowering its terror alert level from “high threat” to “elevated threat,” saying the risk of an attack had subsided.
The Swedish Security Service (Sapo) raised the level in August 2023 to “high threat” — the fourth level on a scale of five — after angry reactions to a series of protests involving desecrations of the Qur'an made the country a “prioritized target.”
“Propaganda against Sweden has subsided and Sweden is not specifically mentioned as a target,” Fredrik Hallstrom, head of operations at the Swedish Security Service, told a press conference.
“We do not see the same intense flow of attack threats directed at Sweden,” he added.
Sapo said it now considered the terror alert level to be at “elevated threat” — the third level on its five-point scale.
Hallstrom cautioned that with “an elevated threat, there is room for a terrorist attack to occur.”
A series of Qur'an burnings across the country — most notably by Iraqi Christian Salwan Momika — in the summer of 2023 sparked outrage in the Muslim world.
It strained relations between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries, and Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July 2023, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion.
Momika ended up facing charges of inciting ethnic hatred, but in January of this year he was fatally shot in an apartment just hours before the court was due to deliver its ruling.
His co-protester Salwan Najem, also of Iraqi origin, was ultimately found guilty of inciting ethnic hatred during four Qur'an burnings in 2023.
Despite the lowered threat level, Charlotte von Essen, head of Sapo, stressed that “Sweden is in a serious security situation.”
“The worst in many years,” von Essen told reporters.
The Sapo chief pointed to the fact that the war in Ukraine was still ongoing.
“Foreign powers — and Russia in particular — are carrying out extensive security-threatening activities in and against Sweden,” she said.

Congo votes to lift immunity of former president Kabila

Updated 16 min 10 sec ago
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Congo votes to lift immunity of former president Kabila

Congo’s senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of lifting former President Joseph Kabila’s immunity from prosecution in a late night vote on Thursday over his alleged links to the M23 rebel group.
Kabila is wanted in Congo for alleged crimes against humanity for supporting the insurgency in the east, including a role in the massacre of civilians and personnel. Congo has also moved to suspend his political party and seize the assets of its leaders.
Kabila, who denies any ties to the rebel group, stepped down after almost 20 years in power in 2018, yielding to protests. He has been out of the Central African country since late 2023, mostly in South Africa.
The senate backed lifting his immunity by 88 votes to 5 in a secret ballot.
Kabila has been threatening to return to Congo for weeks to help find a solution to the crisis in the east, where Rwandan-backed M23 rebels now control large swathes of territory.
A return to Congo by Kabila could complicate the bid to end the rebellion in eastern Congo, which contains vast supplies of critical minerals that President Donald Trump’s administration is keen to access.
Washington is pushing for a peace agreement between the two sides to be signed this summer, accompanied by minerals deals aimed at bringing billions of dollars of Western investment to the region, Massad Boulos, US President Donald Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, told Reuters earlier this month.
Kabila came to power in 2001 after his father’s assassination. He refused to stand down when his final term officially ended in 2016, leading to deadly protests, before agreeing to leave office following an election in 2018.


Bangladesh minister says Yunus ‘not going to step down’

Updated 21 min 41 sec ago
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Bangladesh minister says Yunus ‘not going to step down’

  • Muhammad Yunus had threatened to quit the job if parties did not give him their backing
  • Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP demanded he fix a date

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s Muhammad Yunus “needs to remain” in office as interim leader to ensure a peaceful transition of power, a cabinet member and special adviser to Yunus said Friday.

Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who took over after a mass uprising last year, had threatened to quit the job if parties did not give him their backing, a political ally and sources in his office said.

The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that toppled then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, with parties protesting on the streets over a string of demands.

“For the sake of Bangladesh and a peaceful democratic transition, Professor Yunus needs to remain in office,” Faiz Ahmad Taiyeb, a special assistant to Yunus, and head of the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology, said in a post on Facebook.

“The Chief Adviser is not going to step down,” he added. “He does not hanker after power.”

Bangladesh’s political crisis has escalated this week, with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.

Yunus’s reported threat to stand down came after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka on Wednesday, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time.

Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP — seen as the front-runners in highly anticipated elections that will be the first since Hasina was overthrown — demanded he fix a date.

Yunus’s relationship with the military has also reportedly deteriorated.

According to local media and military sources, powerful army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said on Wednesday that elections should be held by December.

Taiyeb issued a warning to the army on Friday.

“The army can’t meddle in politics,” he wrote.

“The army doesn’t do that in any civilized country,” he added.

“By saying that the election has to be held by December, the military chief failed to maintain his jurisdictional correctness.”


UK newspaper The Telegraph set for US ownership

Updated 49 min 53 sec ago
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UK newspaper The Telegraph set for US ownership

LONDON: British right-wing newspaper The Telegraph has agreed a deal that would see it purchased by US investment group RedBird Capital Partners for £500 million ($670 million), the pair announced Friday.
RedBird has struck an “in-principle agreement” to purchase The Telegraph Media Group (TMG), which comprises the 170-year-old paper’s print and online operations, a joint statement said.
It concludes a protracted sale lasting around two years, which has involved an intervention by the previous Conservative government.
US-Emirati consortium RedBird IMI had already struck a deal for TMG in late 2023.
However, the previous UK government triggered a swift resale amid concern over the potential impact on freedom of speech given Abu Dhabi’s press censorship record.
RedBird Capital Partners on Friday said the agreement struck with TMG makes it “the sole control owner” and “unlocks a new era of growth for the title” founded in 1855.
“RedBird’s growth strategy will include capital investment in digital operations, subscriptions and journalism as it looks to expand The Telegraph internationally.”
The US group added it is in “discussions with select UK-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of The Telegraph.”


South Sudan refugees in Ethiopia face imminent ‘health catastrophe’

Updated 52 min 30 sec ago
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South Sudan refugees in Ethiopia face imminent ‘health catastrophe’

  • A power-sharing agreement between the warring parties provided a fragile calm
  • The NGO also announced that it had moved its medical services from the Ethiopian border town of Burbeiye to the more distant Mattar

ADDIS ABABA: South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia face an imminent “health catastrophe,” Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Friday, citing a cholera epidemic and cases of severe acute malnutrition.
South Sudan, the world’s youngest country after gaining independence from Sudan in 2011, was plunged into a violent civil war between 2013 and 2018 that claimed around 400,000 lives.
A power-sharing agreement between the warring parties provided a fragile calm, but it has all but collapsed as violent clashes have broken out between forces allied to President Salva Kiir and his long-time rival, First Vice President Riek Machar, who was put under house arrest in March.
According to MSF, 35,000 to 85,000 South Sudanese refugees have fled to Mattar, an Ethiopian town near the border with South Sudan.
“The local infrastructure is stretched beyond capacity,” the NGO said in a statement, adding that “with the resurgence of waterborne diseases such as cholera and acute watery diarrhea, the risk of a health disaster is imminent.”
MSF said it had treated around 1,200 patients with cholera, a disease that can be fatal in 10-20 percent of cases.
“Over 40 percent of malaria rapid diagnostic tests have returned positive, and nearly 7 percent of children under five show signs of severe acute malnutrition,” MSF added.
The NGO also announced that it had moved its medical services from the Ethiopian border town of Burbeiye to the more distant Mattar due to armed clashes between “the South Sudanese army and an opposition group” along the border.
It has received more than 200 people with “war injuries” in Burbeiye since the fighting began in February, it said.
MSF urged the various parties to the conflict in South Sudan to “ensure a safe humanitarian space and protect civilians and aid workers alike,” and called on international donors to scale up assistance particularly in Mattar “where shelter, water and medical care are in too low supply for people who have fled horrific violence.”