India People in Asia remember the victims of the 2004 tsunami
Thousands of people in Indonesia and other countries have commemorated the victims of the tsunami disaster 21 years ago. Indonesia had to mourn most of the approximately 230,000 dead from that time, many people died in the province of Aceh on the island of Sumatra.
26.12.2025, 13:57
SDA
Numerous people gathered in the large Baiturrahman mosque in the provincial capital Banda Aceh for a prayer on Boxing Day, as the local news agency Antara reported. The courtyard of the mosque and the surrounding streets were also filled with people.
Prayers for flood victims in November
The prayers were not only dedicated to the tsunami victims, but also to the people who died in the floods and landslides in the region last month. According to the authorities, at least 1,135 people lost their lives in the provinces of Aceh, North and West Sumatra.
On 26 December 2004, a massive undersea quake with a magnitude of 9.1 shook several countries around the Indian Ocean and triggered a huge tidal wave with waves up to 20 meters high. In addition to those in Indonesia, there were also numerous victims in other countries, from Sri Lanka to India and Tanzania.
India and Sri Lanka
In India, residents of affected villages in the southern state of Tamil Nadu gathered on beaches to pour or throw milk and flowers into the sea as an offering in memory of the tsunami victims, according to reports in the newspaper "The New Indian Express". In Tamil Nadu, the tsunami is estimated to have killed around 8,000 people.
In Sri Lanka, people paid tribute to the victims with two minutes of silence. December 26 has been observed as National Safety Day in the island nation since 2005. According to official figures, more than 35,000 people lost their lives in the tsunami on the island.
