Memorials held across Asia to mark 20 years of devastating tsunami

Memorials were held for the victims of the tsunami that hit the Indian Ocean region, killing more than 200,000 people in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters. In Indonesia’s Aceh province, where more than 100,000 people were killed, a siren rang out at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque to kick off a series of memorials around the region, including Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, which the tsunami hit hours later. I can’t describe it with words.” Some mourners sat and cried at Aceh’s Ulee Lheue mass grave, where about 14,000 are buried, while some villages held their own prayers around the province as they remembered the tragedy that devastated entire communities. Indonesians will later visit a larger mass grave and hold a communal prayer in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, while beachside memorials and religious ceremonies were starting in Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, some of the worst-hit countries.