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The victims of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean are remembered

2024-12-26 12:19:43, Kosova & Bota CNA

People have come together to pray and visit mass graves in Indonesia's Aceh province on December 26 to mark the 20th anniversary of the massive Indian Ocean tsunami that hit the region and was one of the worst natural disasters in modern history.

Many people laid flowers at the mass grave in the village of Ule Lue, where more than 14,000 unidentified victims of the tsunami are buried. This is one of several mass graves in Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's northernmost province that was one of the hardest hit areas by the 9.1-magnitude earthquake and the massive tsunami that followed.

"We miss them and we still don't know where they are. We all know that every year we visit the mass graves in Ule Lue and Siron," said Muhamad Amirudin, who lost his two children 20 years ago. Their bodies were never found.

The powerful earthquake that struck off the coast of Sumatra on December 26, 2004, triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 230,000 people in dozens of countries and reached as far as East Africa. About 1.7 million people were displaced, mostly in the four countries hardest hit by the natural disaster: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

More than 170,000 people died in Indonesia alone.

Hundreds of people gathered at memorial ceremonies in Banda Aceh. Sirens were sounded for three minutes throughout the city to mark the duration of the powerful earthquake.

Now this city has been rebuilt and tsunami warning systems are in place.

Even in Thailand, ceremonies have been organized to commemorate more than 8,000 people who died as a result of the tsunami. About 400 bodies are still unidentified.

About 300 people attended a prayer ceremony attended by Muslims, Christians and Buddhists.

In India, citizens gathered at Marina Beach in the city of Chennai. They threw milk into the sea to appease the gods and offered flowers and prayed for the victims.

According to the data, 10,749 people died in India from the 2004 tsunami.

Memorial ceremonies were also held in Sri Lanka, where the survivors and family members of the victims gathered. In this country, more than 35,000 people have lost their lives from the natural disaster that happened two decades ago./ VOA