Appeals for unity as Maldives remembers tsunami
The December 2004 tsunami left 82 people dead and 26 missing and presumed dead.
27 Dec 2018, 9:00 AM
The Maldives on Wednesday marked the fourteenth anniversary after the Indian Ocean tsunami, an unprecedented natural disaster that claimed more than 100 lives and depopulated several islands.
Speaking at the annual Unity Day function, held this year on the island of Dhuvaafaru in Raa atoll, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih recounted his experience on the day the tsunami struck.
The veteran lawmaker was on his native Hinnavaru with his six and seven-year-old children when the waves swept through the island. One of them climbed the top of a tree and the other sought refuge atop a wall, he recalled, teary-eyed with emotion.
Patience and faith in God’s mercy saw the Maldivian people through hunger and incalculable loss, he said, praising the solidarity and unity in the aftermath of the disaster.
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