Yangon:  Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called  for her people to remain united, saying the South-east Asian country faces "challenges" at home and abroad, as she marked two years since her party swept to power in a historic vote.

In a televised speech, Suu Kyi made only a passing reference to the crisis in Rakhine state, where her government faces mounting international condemnation for a military operation against Rohingya Muslims that has sent nearly 700,000 members of the minority community fleeing to Bangladesh.

On the same day, a  boat with 56 people claiming to be Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar was  helped back to sea by Thai fishermen and navy craft after being damaged in a storm and stopping temporarily in southern Thailand.

An official in Thailand's Krabi province said those aboard were seeking to go to Malaysia when their boat was damaged on Sunday morning. He said Thai villagers supplied them with food and fuel before sending them on their way.

Suu Kyi, a  Nobel Peace Prize laureate,  has struggled to match the sky-high expectations that swept her National League for Democracy (NLD) to power in 2016, and is struggling to rebut criticism over slower economic growth and continued fighting with ethnic armed groups.