Hunger strikes after floods leave over 900 dead in Indonesia

The catastrophic convergence of two tropical cyclones and the monsoon season has left about 1,790 dead in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Among these victims, 908 died on the tourist island of Sumatra in western Indonesia, with over 400 people still missing. The death toll may rise due to hunger threatening villages and areas that remain inaccessible in the remote regions of Aceh, warned Muzakir Manaf, governor of this province, ‘completely destroyed, from north to south, from roads to the sea.’ ‘Many people are in need of basic necessities,’ he told the press, warning that ‘people do not die from floods but from hunger.’ According to the Indonesian meteorological service, rains may return on Saturday to Aceh and Sumatra, where water and mud buried many homes.