Food shortage hits St Martin’s Island, ship with supplies sent from Cox’s Bazar

COX’S BAZAR CORRESPONDENT

A ship carrying essential supplies was dispatched to St. Martin’s Island from Cox’s Bazar on Friday to alleviate a food shortage caused by a week-long halt in ship operations on the Teknaf-St. Martin’s route due to ongoing conflicts in Myanmar.

The 200 metric tons of rice, lentils, oil, and other essentials were sent from the BIWTA dock on the Bankkhali River in Cox’s Bazar at 2:15pm. Over 150 residents of St. Martin’s, who were in Cox’s Bazar for various reasons, also returned home on the same ship, officials said.

Hossain Islam Bahadur, director of MV Bar Aulia, and Cox’s Bazar Additional Deputy Commissioner Md. Yamin Hossain confirmed the information.

Yamin Hossain explained that ship operations on the St. Martin’s route were suspended due to the conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state and three instances of gunfire targeting vessels from Myanmar. The suspension led to a severe shortage of food and essential goods for the island’s 10,000 residents.

In response, the district administration decided in a special meeting on Wednesday to use an alternative route for transportation to St. Martin’s. Limited passenger trawler services began on Thursday via the Sabran Munder Dale coastal area in the Bay of Bengal. On Friday, a ship named ‘MV Bar Aulia’ was dispatched from the BIWTA dock in Cox’s Bazar with enough supplies to sustain the island’s residents for the next month.

“We coordinated with the island’s traders to send the ship, and many St. Martin’s residents are returning home on it,” said Yamin Hossain.

Bahadur mentioned that MV Bar Aulia had been operating trips to St. Martin’s during the tourist season from October to March with administrative permission. The ship was now sent to the island due to the emergency. It will return to Cox’s Bazar on Saturday, and anyone from the island needing urgent travel can come back on that day. This journey is to meet the needs of the island’s residents at the administration’s request, not for business purposes. The ship will continue its trips as long as required by the administration.

Trawler operations resumed on Thursday under the protection of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and the Coast Guard, following a seven-day suspension due to gunfire targeting vessels traveling between the Myanmar border and St. Martin’s Island. Around 3:30 PM on Thursday, over 300 people arrived in Teknaf from St. Martin’s by three trawlers via the Sabran Union coastal point in Teknaf upazila near the Marine Drive road, with a similar number of people traveling to the island.