On 26 December 2004, a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck the Indian Ocean 250 kilometers northwest of Sumatra, the largest tremor recorded in four decades. Waves up to 10 meters high hit Aceh province within 30 minutes, obliterating dozens of villages, then spread across the ocean to batter Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives, and nations as far west as Tanzania.
The death toll climbed from 55,000 on 28 December to more than 120,000 by 30 December. UN officials estimated 150,000 killed by early January, with Indonesia accounting for over 100,000 of those deaths. The WHO warned that disease could claim as many additional lives as the waves, and roughly five million people lost their homes.
Global aid pledges reached $2 billion by 1 January, including $500 million from Japan. A 26-nation emergency summit in Jakarta on 6 January called for nearly $1 billion in immediate cash, and Asian leaders endorsed plans for a regional warning system for the Indian Ocean. The Paris Club of creditor nations granted debt freezes to Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Seychelles, while the Asian Development Bank projected the disaster could push nearly two million more people into poverty.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in January 2005, in its own words.