It comes as UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said his thoughts are with the “millions of people who were affected”.
A woman weeps during a prayer marking 20 years of the massive Indian Ocean tsunami, in Banda Aceh, Indonesia (Photo: AP Photo/Reza Saifullah)
Many wept as they laid flowers at a mass grave in Ulee Lheue village, where over 14,000 unidentified victims of the tsunami are buried.
“We miss them and we still don’t know where they are. All we know is that every year we visit the mass grave in Ulee Lhue and Siron,” said Muhamad Amirudin, who lost two of his children 20 years ago and has never found their bodies.
A mourner scatters flower petals at the Ulee Lheue mass grave, one of the two major mass burial sites where victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were laid to rest, in Banda Aceh (Photo: Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP)
Hundreds of people also gathered to pray at the Baiturrahman Mosque in downtown Banda Aceh. Sirens sounded across the city for three minutes to mark the time of the earthquake.
An aerial view of Rahmatullah mosque in Lhoknga, Aceh province on 14 January, 2005 amid destruction after the 26 December, 2004 tsunami (top) and the same mosque on 27 November, 2024 (Photo: Chaideer MAHYUDDIN and Joel SAGET / AFP)
Some 1.7 million people were displaced, mostly in the four worst-affected countries: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. More than 170,000 people died in Indonesia alone.
'I lost my daughter in the Boxing Day Tsunami - I'll never stop searching for her'
Read MoreThe tsunami claimed the lives of over 8,000 people in Thailand, including many who remain missing, leaving a deep scar in the nation’s history. Nearly 400 bodies remain unclaimed.
Urai Sirisuk said she avoids the seaside memorial park the rest of the year because the loss of her four-year-old daughter still cuts deep every time she’s reminded of it.
But, she said, “I still hear her voice in my ears, that she’s calling for me. I can’t abandon her. So I have to be here, for my child.”
Women light candles during a ceremony held on the 20th anniversary for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, at Pattinapakkam beach in Chennai (Photo: R.Satish BABU / AFP)
According to official data, 10,749 people were killed in India, including nearly 7,000 people in Tamil Nadu alone.
Overall, more than 35,000 people died in Sri Lanka in the tsunami. People across the country observed two minutes of silence on Thursday in memory of those who lost their lives.
A woman offers prayers on a mass grave of people who lost their lives in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in Peraliya (Photo: Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)“My thoughts are with those who lost loved ones and the millions of people who were affected by the disaster, as well as all those who helped with the recovery.”
Additional reporting by agencies.
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