Nearly 1800 dead in floods in South and Southeast Asia

The death toll on the Indonesian island of Sumatra rose to 908 on Saturday. Additionally, around 400 people are missing. A series of tropical storms and monsoon rains have recently hit South and Southeast Asia, triggering landslides and floods. In Sri Lanka, 607 people have lost their lives, while the death toll in Thailand stands at 276. Two people have died in both Malaysia and Vietnam. In total, there have been around 1790 deaths so far, and Indonesian authorities fear that starvation may drive the death toll even higher. ‘People are not dying from the floods but from starvation. That’s how it is,’ said Governor Muzakir Manaf of the Aceh province, located in the northern part of Sumatra. In the Aceh Tamiang sub-province, entire villages have been washed away, according to the governor. ‘The region is completely devastated from top to bottom. Many villages and districts are now just names.’