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On 26 December, 2004, a magnitude 9.15 earthquake struck off Indonesia’s Aceh Province on Sumatra island. It was followed by a tsunami which killed more than 226,000 people in 13 countries, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
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The earthquake moved a 1,200-km section of the sea floor, releasing energy equivalent to 550 million Hiroshima atomic explosions, according to the 2009 “Tsunami Legacy” report by Tsunami Global Lessons Learned Project.
Seen as one of the greatest natural disasters in recent history, over 1.7 million people were displaced in the worst-affected countries of India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Some 422,000 homes were damaged or destroyed in these countries.
In this photo gallery by Jefri Aries, IRIN looks back at the effects of the disaster on the worst-hit area of Aceh, where most of Indonesia’s death toll of over 167,000 occurred, and the relief efforts that followed.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions