Sole Survivor Found After 25 Days

Waving a flag made of his clothes, a tsunami victim wearing only underwear was rescued after surviving alone for 25 days on a flattened island in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, authorities said Saturday.

The tale of survival reached Port Blair, the archipelago’s capital, Saturday as authorities slowly restored communication links with faraway islands.

About 1,900 people have been declared dead across the Andaman and Nicobar islands since the Dec. 26 tsunami, and at least 5,550 remain missing.

Michael Mangal was among the missing until Wednesday, when he was spotted on deserted Pillow Panja island.

Mangal told rescuers he was sucked into the sea when the first tsunami wave retreated, but an even bigger second wave dumped him back on shore.

He found that no one else from his village had survived, a local government statement said.

Injured and desperate, he survived for 25 days on coconuts, it said.

The Nicobarese are the largest tribal group on the islands with about 30,000 members, accounting for about 10% of the archipelago’s population.

“Miracles do happen,” said Rashid Yusuf, president of the Nicobarese Youth Assn., which has been assisting survivors.

Meanwhile Saturday, the World Food Program warned that 200,000 tsunami survivors in Indonesia’s hardest-hit province, Aceh, were not being adequately fed despite huge aid operations.

Program spokesman Gerald Bourke said the U.N. body was feeding about 400,000 Acehnese but thousands more needed immediate attention.

He said the agency was set to start distributing aid today from a ship anchored off Sumatra, where Aceh is located.

Indonesia’s government has accused separatist rebels in Aceh of attacking relief convoys, a charge they deny. Both sides declared an informal cease-fire after the tsunami, but it is withering amid new clashes.

Today, the military said Indonesian troops had killed 208 suspected rebels in Aceh since the tsunami. “We were forced to shoot those people because they were disturbing the security,” said Army Chief of Staff Ryamizard Ryacudu, who is known as a hard-line nationalist.