2005 Photo Contest, Spot News, 1st prize
Photographer

Dean Sewell

Oculi / Agence Vu

31 December, 2004

Five days after the tsunami, international aid agencies had still not reached Meulaboh. The Indonesian province of Aceh, on the western tip of Sumatra, was closest to the epicenter of the December 26 earthquake that unleashed massive tidal waves in the region, and bore the full brunt of the destruction. Over 70 percent of the inhabitants of some coastal villages in Aceh lost their lives as a result of the tsunami. In Indonesia as a whole more than 130,000 people were killed, and over 500,000 made homeless. International aid organizations had long been denied access to Aceh because of ongoing conflict between Indonesian security forces and separatist rebels, but once the scale of the disaster became clear, the government relaxed restrictions.

About the photographer

Dean Sewell

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