Pohon kelewih berukuran besar yang tumbang dan batangnya menutup akses jalan nasional penghubung Kabupaten Sukabumi, Jabar dengan Kabupaten Lebak, Banten tepatnya di Kampung Ciwaru, Desa Cikahuripan, Kecamatan Cisolok, Kabupaten Sukabumi pada Rabu (28/12/2022). ANTARA/Aditya Rohman
Hujan deras disertai angin kencang menyebabkan pohon berukuran besar di Kampung Ciwaru, Kabupaten Sukabumi, Jawa Barat tumbang menutup ruas jalan nasional yang menghubungkan Kecamatan Cisolok, Kabupaten Sukabumi dengan Kabupaten Lebak, Banten, Rabu.
"Pohon yang tumbang di Desa Cikahuripan, Kecamatan Cisolok ini jenis kelewih dengan diameter sekitar 60 cm dan tinggi 15 meter. Kejadiannya sekitar pukul 20.30 WIB dan tidak ada korban jiwa," kata salah seorang warga setempat Supriyadi di Sukabumi, Rabu.
Informasi yang dihimpun dari warga, akibat pohon tumbang ini tidak hanya menutup akses jalan utama dan tidak bisa dilalui kendaraan baik dari Cisolok menuju Lebak maupun sebaliknya, tetapi juga memutus jaringan listrik di Kecamatan Cisolok serta Cilongrang, Lebak.
Akibatnya listrik padam di sebagian wilayah di Kecamatan Cisolok dan Cilongrang, bahkan hingga pukul 21.00 WIB listrik belum juga menyala. Petugas penanggulangan bencana bersama warga kesulitan mengevakuasi batang pohon yang melintang di tengah jalan ditambah hujan deras masih mengguyur lokasi kejadian.
Menurut Supriyadi, selain pohon tumbang, satu tiang listrik ikut roboh dan batang pohon itu pun menimpa warung milik warga yang saat kejadian warung tersebut dalam keadaan kosong.
Sementara, Kepala Dusun 3 Cikahuripan Yuli Kusworo mengatakan kejadian pohon tumbang ini merupakan yang kesekian kalinya, bahkan belum lama tidak jauh dari lokasi juga terjadi hal yang sama. Meski tidak ada korban jiwa, jalan itu hingga kini belum bisa dilalui kendaraan
khususnya mobil, truk dan sejenisnya.
Pihaknya pun meminta kepada instansi terkait atau berwenang untuk segera melakukan penertiban terhadap sejumlah pohon yang tumbang, karena di sekitar lokasi masih banyak pohon berukuran besar yang rawan tumbang dan kondisinya sudah tua serta keropos.
A US test pilot had a close call earlier this month after his Lockheed Martin F-35B touched down nose first on the runway at a US military base in Texas, and proceeded to spin wildly out of control, forcing him to eject. The F-35 program has taken heavy flak over its astronomical $1.7 trillion price tag, and hundreds of major and minor defects.
Militer AS dan Israel telah mengandangkan sebagian armada F-35 mereka sebagai tanggapan atas kecelakaan 15 Desember di Forth Worth, Texas.
Dalam sebuah pernyataan kepada media AS pada hari Selasa, Kantor Program Gabungan F-35 Pentagon mengumumkan bahwa beberapa “F-35 berisiko tinggi” telah dikandangkan hingga Januari untuk memastikan keamanan.
“The F-35 Joint Program Office has issued a Time Compliance Technical Directive (TCTD) to restrict some aircraft, which have been evaluated to be of a higher risk, form flight operations while the investigation into the mishap on December 15 continues and until procedures can be developed for their return to flight. The affected aircraft have been identified, and the JPO will work with the [US military] and [international] partners to ensure compliance with the TCTD,” the statement said.
The office did not specify which planes it considered “higher risk” and un-airworthy, whether the TCTD applied F-35Bs or all variants of the aircraft. The F-35 crash in Texas involved an F-35B, which is a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the plane used by the US Marine Corps, as well as the British Royal Air Force and Navy. Italy, Singapore and South Korea also plan to order this particular model of the aircraft.
The UK has not grounded its F-35Bs in response to the incident. However, the Israeli Air Force announced this week that it had grounded eleven of its customized F-35I Adirs – F-35A variant aircraft which feature customized Israeli-made electronic warfare systems, sensors and countermeasures, and a custom main computer, in response to the Texas incident. The F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing variant of the fighter.
#Breaking New much clearer video, courtesy Kitt Wilder, of STOL variant F35 B model landing JRB Fort Worth, and pilot ejects. Condition of pilot still unknown. @CBSDFWpic.twitter.com/BeERIeyhtO
In a statement, the Israeli Defense Forces said that an initial review determined that its F-35s may be prone to the same malfunctions as the US F-35B that crashed in Texas. “The IAF will analyze the findings from the incident and draw conclusions and recommendations for the safe return of the aircraft to operational duty,” an IDF spokesperson said.
It’s not yet clear what caused the December 15 F-35B crash at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, situated near Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth manufacturing facility. The F-35B that crashed was brand spanking new, and had not yet been delivered to the military. It was being operated by a US Air Force pilot with the Defense Contract Management Agency. The pilot was testing the plane before its expected handover to make sure it was operating effectively.
A source told US media that the F-35 crash may have been the result of a faulty propulsion system tube used to transfer highly pressurized fuel.
The Fort Worth incident caused the second grounding of F-35s this year. In July, the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps grounded part of their fleets over concerns over a faulty component in planes’ ejection seats which threatened to render them flying deathtraps in an emergency.
Over 820 F-35s have been delivered to the US military and partner nations around the world. Over seven years after being deployed, the aircraft continue to suffer from a range of problems, from cost overruns, parts shortages and quality issues to outstanding problems with the aircraft’s design. In a report earlier this year, the US Government Accountability Office cited four major Category 1 deficiencies, including cabin overpressurization and problems with the night vision camera, and 822 Category 2 problems. Other issues, from fear of lightening to software bugs, radar issues, corrosion, and neck-breaking ejection seats, have plagued the aircraft for years.
Despite these issues, Lockheed continues to enjoy solid orders for its enfant terrible of a product. Earlier this month, the German parliament’s budget committee approved the spending of €10 billion to procure a party of 35 F-35As.
The year 2022 saw the F-35 sales going up several notches, with many Western countries expressing interest in the aircraft. However, this fifth-generation aircraft manufactured by US-based Lockheed Martin also ran into controversies in 2022 and had to be grounded on more occasions than one.
In a recent blow to the reputation of the F-35 Lightning II, Israel grounded 11 of its F-35A stealth fighters on December 25. The decision was taken after an F-35B crashed in Texas, United States, earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported.
According to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the decision to ground the Israeli F-35 aircraft was made after an initial examination revealed potential similarities between the Israeli fighter’s malfunctions and those that may have contributed to the crash of the US fighter.
However, both IDF and Lockheed Martin have added a caveat that they weren’t sure at this point that the F-35A in the IDF fleet had the same technical problems as the F-35B aircraft involved in the Texas accident. They further stated that 11 aircraft were grounded only as a precautionary measure.
Shortly after the IDF decision was made public, the F-35 Joint Program Office also grounded a few of its new F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in response to the Dec. 15 incident.
The F-35 Joint Program Office reportedly confirmed on December 27 that it has provided guidelines due to the incident and that some higher-risk F-35s are grounded, at least until January.
Controversies Gripped F-35 In 2022
The USAF grounded its F-35 fighter jets in July because of a malfunctioning cartridge-actuated device inside the ejection seat, which would have prevented the pilot from safely ejecting from the aircraft in an emergency.
The ejection seats inside aircraft have cartridge-actuated devices, essentially explosive cartridges used to help propel the seat out of a plane in an emergency. The manufacturer reportedly identified specific production lots of CADs used in Martin-Baker ejection seats as problematic and needing repair, which caused panic among aircraft operators worldwide.
Another big controversy surrounding the F-35 Lightning II unraveled in September, leading to the US State Department abruptly halting deliveries of the stealth aircraft upon discovering a Chinese component in the aircraft.
According to a statement released by Lockheed Martin on September 7, a magnet in the F-35’s Honeywell-manufactured turbo machine, an engine part that powers the starter/generator placed on the engine, was found to have been made using a cobalt and samarium alloy that is produced in China. However, the alloy was magnetized in the United States.
When the revelation was made, it caused widespread concerns about the security of the aircraft being compromised. Not just that, it exposed the loopholes in the supply chains and rattled the Pentagon and the higher echelons in the Joe Biden administration.
The spokesman for the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO), Russell Goemaere, stated categorically that the component which is a magnet used in F-35 turbo machine pumps, “does not transmit information or harm the integrity of the aircraft and there is no performance, quality, safety, or security risks associated with this issue.” However, the deliveries were suspended nonetheless.
Later, on October 4, a South Korean lawmaker stated that the nation’s F-35A fighters were labeled as operationally unready 234 times over 18 months ending in June because of malfunctions. The Air Force, on its part, acknowledged having trouble obtaining parts for defects in the aircraft. It added stated that it would strive to get them from the manufacturer.
Further, the aircraft has been under the scanner this month for cost overruns and the expenses that maintaining the aircraft can entail for the state exchequer. The costs of developing a new cockpit computer for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, set initially at $712 million four years ago, have soared by another $239 million, generating extra expenses of $680 million.
Not just that, a senior Australian journalist, Brian Toohey, criticized the ‘Defense Strategy Review’ of the Australian government that has recommended buying the fourth squadron of F-35 fighter jets.
He argued the long history of costly problems of the F-35s already acquired while arguing that Australia “should be asking for a refund” and that “the biggest mistake was to buy the plane in the first place.”
The effective combat radius of the F-35A, as previously reported by EurAsian Times, is only approximately 1,000 kilometers, and with a tanker aircraft, it might be increased to roughly 1,500 kilometers. The F-35A cannot travel to the South China Sea without aerial refueling. Even so, the availability of airborne tankers over contested airspace is questionable during a battle.
In addition, the F-35 unfortunately ran into many troubles this year. Before the hard nose landing of the aircraft in the US earlier this month, an F-35B Lightning II fighter jet was photographed parked in Okinawa, Japan, with its nose down on the road on December 1.
At the time of the Japan incident, EurAsian Times had reported that F-35B attached to the US Marine Corp (USMC) had suffered a nose landing gear collapse at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa while being towed following an emergency/precautionary landing.
An F-35A fifth-generation fighter plane crashed in the US state of Utah, close to Salt Lake City, in October 2022. Although the pilot is said to have successfully ejected and received treatment for minor injuries, the crash reportedly started bushfires that burned around 8 to 10 acres of land.
Area view after an Air Force pilot was ejected from an F-35 in October. (itschappy/Twitter)
Before the October event, two F-35 jet crashes were reported in January of this year. On January 4, the South Korean F-35’s pilot performed an emergency “belly landing” at an airfield when the landing gear malfunctioned owing to mechanical issues.
A few days after the South Korean accident, on January 25, a US Navy F-35C had a “landing incident” on the deck of the Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the South China Sea, the first-ever crash involving the carrier form of the fifth-generation fighter.
However, despite all the controversies and accidents that the aircraft had to brave this year, it has also garnered widespread global popularity. Faced with security threats posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several European countries and the Global North have signed agreements to purchase this fifth-generation stealth jet.
It may have been a controversial year for the aircraft, but it has undoubtedly been very profitable for Lockheed Martin, which has been inundated with orders.
In his 7th live televised interview, President Raisi said the enemies have targeted Iran's territorial integrity and national sovereignty by creating differences among the Iranians.
"The enemies of the Islamic revolution will not achieve their goals and sow discord among the Iranian people by spreading lies," he said in Tehran during a meeting with the veterans of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. "Young people are our children and all those who were misled will be welcomed by their motherland but there is no mercy for traitors," he added.
According to the Iranian president, "hypocrites, monarchists and counterrevolutionaries, that is, all those against the Islamic republic" were involved in organizing disturbances and unrest that erupted in Iran in mid-September.
On Monday, the Iranian prosecutor’s office reported that 83% of the protesters detained earlier by the police and the security services had been released by the authorities. A statement cited by the Tasnim news agency notes that "over the past three months, judges overseeing the cases of the protesters visited prisons 2,239 times and had personal conversations with the detainees."
In October and November, the Iranian authorities repeatedly granted pardons to demonstrators who took part in protest rallies in Sanandaj, the administrative center of Kurdistan, and Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchestan Province. Groups of protesters were released in the south-western province of Khuzestan, populated by Arab tribes, and in Ardabil where ethnic Azerbaijanis reside.
On December 26, the United States urged Iran to unconditionally release all protesters. US Department of State Spokesman Ned Price stressed that this is about "all people imprisoned in Iran for peacefully exercising their freedoms."
Street rallies
Iran has been gripped by protests since the funeral of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16. According to the official version, this Kurdish girl was detained by the police for not wearing her headscarf properly. During an interrogation that followed, she suffered a heart attack and died. Social media, however, spread word that Amini had been beaten by the police. On October 7, the Iranian Forensic Medicine Authority published an official report on the cause of her death noting that she had not sustained any trauma.
According to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, over three months, the rallies and processions had widened to engulf 157 cities and populated localities with the protesters demanding democratic changes, condemning state repression and calling for the release of those arrested.
According to the news outlet, in all, 18,500 people have been detained in Iran since mid-September. Some 507 activists and 66 members of security forces have been killed in the unrest.
The Iranian president, meantime, described the results and achievements of his latest two trips to Samarkand and New York.
He referred to his trip to Samarkand to attend the Summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and discussed meeting with heads of 10 regional countries as successful and in line with the development of neighborhood policy.
President Raisi also referred to his visit to the New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly and said, "This was the first visit of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran to American after the assassination of Haj Qasem Soleimani, and it was necessary to broadcast the voice of the authority and innocence of the Iranian nation to the world."
He went on to discuss the achievements of the two recent trips to Samarkand to participate in the Shanghai Summit and the trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly and stated, "Iran's membership in the Shanghai Organization is an important issue."
President Raisi stated that with Iran's membership in the Shanghai Organization, Iran was economically connected to the economic infrastructure of Asia, and emphasized, "The members of the Shanghai Organization have a significant part of the world's population and control an important part of the world's economy."
Recalling that the members of the Eurasian Union and Shanghai are significant countries, the President said, "Naturally, Iran's economic and commercial relations with these countries and with these infrastructures can definitely contribute greatly to the development of trade and economic development of our country."
The Iranian president continued, "In addition to participating in the general debate of the Shanghai Organization, where the heads of the countries were present, and Iran's official membership was officially announced, I also met with the President of China, and in this meeting, the decision and will of the two countries to implement the 25-year plan between the two countries were emphasized."
President Raisi pointed out, "In this meeting, the development of cooperation between the two countries in the field of energy, which has always existed between Iran and China, as well as monetary and financial issues to make bilateral trade more active, were emphasized by the presidents."
He stated that the participation of Chinese companies in important and fundamental projects such as railway projects in Iran, and added, "In the meeting of the President of China, it was decided that these matters should be followed seriously and we can pursue the cooperation between the two countries in railway projects."
President Raisi further said, "What is certain is that we will continue our cooperation in a serious and extensive manner between the two countries."
The Iranian president further referred to the development of mutual cooperation with Russia, and added, "Since my trip to Moscow until the recent Shanghai summit, our business relations with Russia have increased by 80 percent."
He stated that "we have cooperation with Russia in various fields such as space, oil and energy as well as commercial and economic fields, and stated that cooperation such as the North-South Corridor, which is the rail route between Sarakhes and Chabahar, were also discussed at the Shanghai Summit".
The Iranian president referred to Iran's cooperation with India in Chabahar Port, and said, "In the meeting I had with the Prime Minister of India on the sidelines of the Shanghai Summit, the will of the two countries to continue this cooperation seriously and increase its speed was emphasized so that we can take full advantage of this capacity."
He pointed out that the development of Chabahar Port and Makran coasts can have many benefits not only for the development of Iran, but also can provide a good development ground for the region.
President Raisi further referred to his first foreign trip as president to the Shanghai Summit hosted by Tajikistan and said, "Since then, Iran's economic and commercial relations with Tajikistan have increased 5 to 6 times in various fields and we have various cooperation with other countries of the Central Asia, which are in line with the continuation of the neighborhood policy."
The Iranian president also said that the policy pursued by Iran with neighboring countries has led to mutual trust between our country and the Shanghai member countries, and now "we must seek to improve this trust". "In general, the neighborhood policy has worked in the continuation of objective and practical cooperation between us and the neighboring countries".
He referred to the bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the Shanghai Summit with the heads of 10 countries, and emphasized that the main issues raised in these meetings were the development of economic and commercial activities between Iran and the countries of the region.
The Iranian president stated, "This year's trip was my first trip to New York after the martyrdom of Haj Qasem Soleimani. Our inference was that I had to be the voice of the Iranian nation there, and I had to express the right positions of the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation, and broadcast the voice of the innocence and authority of the nation in my speeches, statements, and communications."
President Raisi also pointed to the educational positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the educational positions at the UNESCO meeting, and said, "In this meeting, I talked briefly about the positions of the Islamic Republic, from attention to internal documents such as the fundamental document of education, as well as interaction with all countries and using their experiences."
Referring to his bilateral meetings with the heads of some countries and his participation in scientific and specialized meetings with senior media managers and religious leaders in the United States on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, the President said, "In all these meetings, issues related to the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran were raised."
He stated, "In the meeting we had with President Emmanuel Macron, we discussed nuclear and bilateral issues and the position of the Islamic Republic and what was announced earlier. We announced that a fair and good agreement is completely achievable and we are ready for a good agreement, but the agreement must be fair."
Regarding the details of his meeting with the French President in New York, the President added, "The main point we emphasized was that the Americans withdrew from this agreement and the Europeans did not fulfil their obligations. President Macron agreed that the Europeans did not fulfil their commitments. I said that this time we should focus on adherence to commitments. Our positions were such that he said that he would go and talk to Americans and Europeans and express our positions to them and inform us about it."
He insisted on the guarantee of the Western parties to the Islamic Republic to reach a good agreement, and stated, "We once witnessed that they withdrew from the JCPOA and did not fulfil their commitments, so we should be careful."
Explaining the other details of his meeting with President Macron, President Raisi said, "I told him that you are negotiating on the one hand and proposing a resolution to the Board of Governors on the other hand, these issues do not go together, and the point I emphasized to the French president was that, as Europe, how much do you follow the Americans?
I gave him an example and said that during my trip to France to participate in a conference, a Frenchman said that the life of the building where I sat was longer than the entire life of America, so now why are you following America with this long history? Of course, he said that their position was independent."
Transport drones have so far relied on laser LiDARS (Light Detection and Ranging), measuring the pulse that bounces back from a surface to measure distances. The new research has been described as a way to boost the power of such radiation.
A method for producing high-power laser radiation necessary for the development of transport drones has been invented by Russian scientists at the Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg.
Transport drones that have been created recently can only work when using laser LiDARS (Light Detection And Ranging). In effect, these lasers collect data about a surface by measuring the “bounce back” time of reflected laser beams to the receiver.
The main difficulty in the use of LiDARS is that to "view" an object hundreds of meters away in whatever weather and conditions, a great deal of power is needed for the laser to be sufficiently bright while operating at nanosecond speeds. At present, fiber and solid-state lasers are used in LiDARS but because they need an additional "pumping" stage (to transfer energy from an external source to the laser), they are inefficient.
The institute's scientists managed to get rid of "an extra stage in the chain of converting energy for the power source into energy for laser radiation," said Sergei Slipchenko, senior researcher at the Ioffe Institute's Laboratory of Semiconductor Laser Diodes.
According to him, they have "proposed an alternative".
"We carried out calculations into the interaction processes between current power and light sources in heterostructures (such as those grown on a substrate, consisting of layers of various materials) and high-power semiconductor laser crystals. Based on this, new designs of semiconductor heterostructures and laser crystal designs were generated for subsequent experimental implementation," Slipchenko added.
New, optimized layers of heterostructures, consisting of different compositions, resulted in minimal energy loss. Furthermore, the scientists have managed to create a technology for so-called selective epitaxy (a type of crystal growth) for high-power lasers, when heterostructures can be grown on a specially prepared substrate.
As a result of the breakthrough research, the efficiency of high-power semiconductor lasers exceeded 70 percent, which is twice the efficiency of solid-state and fiber lasers. The team of researchers also managed to obtain laser pulses with a duration of 100 nanoseconds and with a peak power of more than 1 kilowatt from a surface measuring fractions of square centimeters.
Nikita Pikhtin, associate professor at the Department of Photonics at LETI and head of the Ioffe Institute's Center for Nanostructure Physics, explained that in high-power lasers, the size of the element and the emitting region must be larger, so that it can convert a greater amount of energy into light.
The next stage of the research, which was carried out with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, will be to increase the spectral brightness of the lasers.
The Russian Special military operations, December 27th. The main thing:
In the Donetsk direction, during a successful offensive, units of the Kyiv 79th Airborne Assault Brigade were defeated, up to 60 Ukrainian military personnel were destroyed;
The Russian Armed Forces in the South-Donetsk direction destroyed more than 70 Ukrainian soldiers, in the Kupyansky and Krasnolymansky Kyiv directions lost 70 people;
In the Netaylovo (DPR) and Preobrazhenka (Zaporozhye region) regions, the US-made M777 artillery system was destroyed;
Ukraine uses not only NATO weapons, but also Soviet-made weapons, said Alaudinov;
Guterres is ready to mediate on the Ukraine summit only with the consent of all parties, including Russia, RIA Novosti was informed at the UN Secretary General's office;
No mass New Year's events are planned in Donetsk, as Ukrainian forces usually increase shootings for the holidays, said interim adviser to the speaker of the House of Representatives Gagin;
More than 700 critical infrastructure facilities have been damaged in Ukraine since the beginning of the year, says the local Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine
The Russian Army eliminated up to 30 Ukrainian servicemen in the LPR;
Russian troops eliminated more than 40 Ukrainian servicemen in the DPR;
Russian forces eliminated more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen in the South Donetsk direction;
The Russian Army destroyed four Ukrainian Msta-B howitzers and two D-20 howitzers near Kharkov, Kherson, and in the DPR;
Russian troops hit the 79th Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Army in the Donetsk direction, eliminating up to 60 Ukrainian servicemen;
Russian forces destroyed two Ukrainian Gvozdika self-propelled howitzers in the DPR;
Russian troops destroyed a US-made M777 artillery system that had been used to shell residential areas of Donetsk.
Villagers look at a boat used by Rohingya refugees in their weeks-long journey across the Andaman Sea from Bangladesh, in Pidie, Aceh, on Tuesday. (AFP)
More than 200 rescued Rohingya refugees were receiving emergency health assistance in Indonesia, a UN agency said on Tuesday, after they were saved by fishermen when calls on the regional countries to assist them fell on deaf ears for weeks.
The International Organization for Migration has confirmed that at least 174 Rohingya on a rickety wooden boat reached the coastal village of Muara Tiga in Pidie district of northern Aceh province on Monday.
The group of 36 men, 31 women and 107 children arrived about a day after 57 Rohingya refugees landed in the province’s Aceh Besar district.
“The group is in very poor health condition, with many suffering severe dehydration and malnutrition,” the International Organization for Migration said.
“IOM’s medical team is currently conducting basic health assessments.”
Eros Shidqy Putra, a member of Indonesia's National Refugee Task Force, told that the refugees would be placed under the care of the local government for the time being.
“After that, we will move them to a province which is already housing refugees,” he said. “Aceh is not a province that shelters refugees.”
At least five boats carrying hundreds of refugees had left the coast of Cox’s Bazar, the largest Rohingya settlement in Bangladesh, in late November, in an attempt to cross the Andaman Sea to another host country.
One boat carrying 154 refugees was rescued by a Vietnamese offshore company and handed over to the Myanmar Navy, while a vessel carrying 104 people was rescued by the Sri Lanka Navy on Dec. 18.
The UN Refugee Agency previously said it had received unconfirmed reports that a boat carrying 180 people had sunk.
International organizations and activists have urged countries in the region for weeks to rescue the refugees stranded at sea, but despite multiple appeals for help, no official assistance was dispatched.
Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, the brother of Hatamonesa, a 27-year-old woman who was with her five-year-old daughter onboard the boat that arrived in Indonesia on Monday, spoke to his sister on Tuesday after more than a month with no communication.
“We feel like we got a new world today,” Khan said. “We could see their faces again. It’s really a moment of joy for all of us.”
During the call, Khan learned that his niece had received treatment for dehydration because she had drunk salt water during the journey. They did not eat for 13 days.
According to Hatamonesa, 20 people had died on the boat and were thrown overboard.
“She thought that she would die in the voyage at sea,” Khan said.
“She hoped that if she could leave to Malaysia, there would be a better future for her daughters and for her.”
More than 730,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh in 2017 following a brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military that the UN said amounted to genocide.
For the last five years, refugees have lived in squalid and overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar facing increasing uncertainty. The situation has prompted some to take risky journeys by sea in hopes of finding a better life.
