Indonesia has so far buried 111,171 people who died in the December 26th tsunami, and more than 127,000 others remain missing, the government said today.
Authorities found 897 more bodies in Aceh province yesterday and buried them, raising the confirmed death toll in the area to 111,043, the National Disaster Relief Co-ordinating Board said in a statement.
In addition, 128 people died in a neighbouring province for a confirmed total death toll of 111,171. The statement said 127,749 people were missing in the tragedy and most were feared dead but could not be legally declared such for a year.
The Indonesian Welfare Minister predicted the body count would continue to rise for weeks as retrieval teams were finding an average of 500 bodies a day during clean-up operations.