2,226 more tsunami bodies found in Indonesia

Workers in Indonesia have recovered 2,226 more bodies from debris left by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, raising the country’s death toll to 131,029, the government said today.

The Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Executing Agency for Aceh and Nias said in a statement the remains were found between May 6 and June 18 in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh and the province’s hard-hit west coast.

The agency did not provide an update of the missing which was last reported to stand at 37,066. Most of those still unaccounted for are feared dead, but the government says it can’t legally declare them so for one year.

The task of accounting for victims of the December 26 disaster has been extremely difficult, and officials in several of the 11 countries hit say the full tally will likely never be known.

Thousands of victims were buried under mountains of debris and sludge which is still being cleared, thousands more were simply washed out to sea. At least three agencies in Indonesia have kept a tsunami death toll – often with widely conflicting numbers.

The National Disaster Relief Co-ordinating Board, which had been keeping the death toll tally, last week released figures showing a total of 128,803 dead and 37,066 missing. It said on Thursday that it had no new figures.

Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra island was hardest hit by the disaster because it was closest to the epicentre of the magnitude-9.0 quake that triggered massive waves and killed at least 176,727 people in 11 nations. The number of missing is at least 49,616 – with most presumed dead.