By Deutsche Welle
Dec 26, 2024, 01:25 AM EST
A siren rang out this Thursday morning in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, where survivors and relatives of the victims Commemorations begin for more than 220,000 people killed around the Indian Ocean in a devastating tsunami 20 years agoone of the worst natural disasters in the world.
The commemorations throughout Asia began at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque, Banda Aceh, with a three-minute siren at the exact time a powerful earthquake caused gigantic waves on December 26, 2004.
The 9.1 magnitude earthquake in western Indonesia generated massive waves that hit the coastlines of more than a dozen countries, from Indonesia to Somalia.
To remember the pain of that day, commemorative or religious ceremonies will be held in coastal sites of the most affected countries.
On Thursday, people began gathering around mass graves in Aceh province. Many cried at the mass grave in the village of Ulee Lheue, where more than 14,000 unidentified and unclaimed people were buried.
Indonesia was the hardest hit, with 160,000 dead on its western coast, while thousands more died in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, among other countries.
Survivor: “Suddenly everything disappeared”
“I thought it was doomsday,” said Hasnawati, a 54-year-old teacher who goes by only one name, at the Indonesian mosque that was damaged by the tsunami.
“On a Sunday morning when our family was all laughing together, suddenly a disaster struck and everything disappeared. “I can’t describe it in words,” he recalled.
In Sri Lanka, which has recorded more than 35,000 deaths, survivors and relatives planned to gather to remember some 1,000 people who died. when waves derailed a passenger train.
In Thailand, with more than 5,000 dead, several vigils are planned to accompany the memorial ceremony organized by the government.
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