60 Rohingya Refugees Drown Fleeing Burma

At least 60 Rohingya Muslim refugees were presumed dead after their boat capsized off Bangladesh late Thursday. Bangladeshi authorities said bodies of the refugees, most of them children, were continuing to wash ashore Friday morning. The United Nations has repeatedly warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in the region, as members of the minority Rohingya community accuse Burmese security forces of brutalizing civilians and burning down Rohingya homes. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “urgent end to the Rohingya nightmare” on Thursday at the U.N. Security Council’s first open meeting on Burma since 2009. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley condemned the Burmese authorities’ “brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority” and called on other countries to stop providing Burma with weapons in light of the conflict.