Sri Lankan Buddhist monks stand beside a memorial for those who lost their lives in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, in Peraliya on December 26, 2024, the 20th anniversary of the disaster. On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake struck the coast of Sumatra in Indonesia and triggered a huge tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed more than 220,000 people in a dozen countries. (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP)