GENEVA - The death toll from natural disasters soared in 2004 to around 250,000, due largely to the Indian Ocean tsunami, three times that of the previous year and 10 times more than in 2002, according to a report on Wednesday.
The figure was also three times the annual average for the decade 1994-2003, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in its latest World Disasters Report.
Around 232,010 people are known to have died or gone missing in the Dec. 26 tsunami which struck 13 countries around the Indian Ocean, hitting Sri Lanka, Indonesia and southeast India particularly hard.
However, the number of people affected by natural disasters around the world in 2004 fell to 146 million, well down on the 258 million average of the previous decade, according to the Federation, the largest disaster relief network.
The biggest single cause of disasters in 2004 was flooding, with some 110,000 people affected in Bangladesh, India and China.
But the 719 reported disasters in 2004 was the third highest of the decade. Overall, the average annual number of disasters in 2000-2004 was 55 percent higher than in the previous period, the report said.
During the period one third more people were affected by disasters than in the previous five years. The numbers affected in the poorest countries doubled, with Africa showing the greatest increase, the report said.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
