Indonesian girl ‘lost’ in tsunami reunited with family 10 years later

TORONTO – An Indonesian girl who was swept away in the 2004 tsunami has been found and reunited with her family.

“God has given us a miracle,” said Jamaliah Jannaj, the mother of Raudhatul Jannah, who claims her daughter went missing when she was four years old.

On Dec. 26, 2004, an estimated 230,000 people were killed after a giant 9.1-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. On that day, Raudhatul and her seven-year-old brother were given up for dead after the pair was carried off when a wave hit their West Aceh home.

Jamaliah said she and her husband had searched for their children but stopped after one month as they assumed both did not survive the devastating tsunami.

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Back in June, Jamaliah said her brother spotted a girl in a village and believed she bore a striking resemblance to his niece. They later found the young girl, now 14, was being looked after by an elderly woman in a nearby district.

“My husband and I are very happy we have found her,” said Jamaliah in an interview after she was reunited with long-lost daughter Wednesday.  “If anyone is in doubt, I’m ready for DNA tests.”

Jamaliah said she will now resume looking for her son after he reportedly also survived after being swept away to the same islands where her daughter was found. His whereabouts, however, are unknown.

“We will look for him on Banyak Island because we believe he is still alive,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We will look for him on Banyak Island because we believe he is still alive," she said.

Jamaliah said her daughter was rescued by a fisherman who took the young girl back to his own mother who called her Wenni and raised her for nearly a decade.

This isn’t the first story of a family being reunited after the Indian Ocean tsunami to make international headlines.

READ MORE: Indonesian girl swept away in 2004 tsunami reunited with family

In 2011, fifteen-year-old Wati showed up at a cafe in Meulaboh, a city in Aceh province, saying she’d been forced to work as a beggar and had finally broken free.

She said she was looking for her family.

Wati was led to a man named Ibrahim, her grandfather, who summoned her parents, Yusniar and Yusuf.

The parents said they lost three daughters when the tsunami slammed into their tiny village of Ujong Baroh.

The mother, Yusniar, said she recognized Wati by the small scar over her eyebrow and a mole on her hip.