'This is a miracle': Four-year-old girl swept from her parents in Boxing Day tsunami is 'reunited with her family' 10 years later

Parents who lost their two children in the 2004 tsunami c laim to have found their daughter 10 years later

Raudhatul Jannah was given up for dead by her family

Mother says her brother spotted a girl who looked like the long-lost girl

Jannah was rescued by a fisherman and raised by the fisherman's mother, who called her Wenni



An Indonesian girl has been reunited with her family 10 years after she was swept away by the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, her mother claims.

Four-year-old Raudhatul Jannah and her seven-year-old brother were separated from their parents while holding onto a floating piece of wood in the tsunami waters, when it hit her West Aceh home on December 26, 2004, reported DPA .

Jannah's mother Jamaliah, 42, and her husband survived and searched for their children, but stopped after one month, assuming the children had died in the devastating tsunami.

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Raudhatul Jannah (centre) is embraced by her mother Jamaliah (left) and grandmother (right) after being reunited in Meulaboh, Indonesia 10 years after they were separated

In June, Jamaliah's brother spotted a girl who bore a resemblance to Jannah walking home from school and made inquiries about her.

He discovered that she had been swept from Aceh in the 2004 tsunami to remote islands southwest of the province.

The girl was rescued by a fisherman and brought back to the fisherman's mother, now an elderly woman, who named the girl Weni and raised her.

Jamaliah and her husband visited the girl in the inland town of Blangpidie in the Aceh Barat Daya district in late June and found she was their daughter.



'My husband and I are very happy. I am so grateful to God for reuniting us with our child after 10 years of being separated,' said Jamaliah.

'My heart beat so fast when I saw her. I hugged her and she hugged me back and felt so comfortable in my arms,' she said. Jamaliah also said she could not stop the 'tears from flowing' during the reunion. Raudhatul Jannah (second from right) sits with her family on Wednesday. She was rescued by fishermen after she was separated from her family during the Boxing Day tsunami Left: Jamaliah (left) said she recognised her daughter immediately from her 'characteristic' facial features Right: Jannah smiles after being reunited with her family Jamaliah shows a picture of her daughter as a young child before Jannah was washed away from her parents as they clung to a plank of wood in the tsunami waters in 2004 According to an Indonesian newspaper, Jannah is 'cheerful' but does not talk much and has suffered trauma as a result of the tsunami Jannah was reunited with her family on Wednesday and returned to her hometown. 'My husband and I are very happy we have found her. This is a miracle from God,' Jamaliah told DPA by telephone from Meulaboh, the main town in West Aceh.

Jamaliah said she was willing to take a DNA test to prove the girl was her daughter, but that she had no doubt the girl was hers, recognising her as soon as she saw her.

'If anyone is in doubt, I'm ready for DNA tests,' she told DPA.

Jamaliah told Indonesian newspaper Harian Terbit she was very confident that Weni, as she is now known, is her child because of her characteristic facial features, though Jamaliah says Jannah's skin colour has changed, because she has been working in the sun helping her foster mother collect shells. The newspaper reported that Jannah is 'cheerful' but does not talk much and noted that although she is 14 years old Jannah is in fourth grade because of learning difficulties resulting from the trauma of the tsunami. Jamaliah said she is willing to take a DNA test to prove that Weni (right), as she is now known, is the daughter who was taken from her in the tsunami waters 10 years ago Raudhatul Jannah (centre) and her brother, aged seven, were washed away from their parents during the tsunami but were separated afterwards Jamaliah's (right) brother spotted Weni, whom he thought looked like his missing niece, in June and discovered she had been swept from Aceh during the tsunami The family were torn apart when the tsunami hit their house. They clung to a floating plank of wood through the tsunami waters, but two of the couple's children, Jannah and her seven-year-old brother slipped from their parents' grasp. It is understood the couple has another child, named Azhari, who was not separated from them during the tsunami. The parents moved from Aceh a year after the tsunami because their property had been destroyed, Harian Terbit reported.

Jannah told her mother she and her brother, Arif Pratama Rangkuti, survived and were stranded on Banyak Island, but his whereabouts are unknown.

The family are going to travel to the sparsely inhabited island 40 km off the coast to look for their son, who would now be 17. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean was triggered by an earthquake off Sumatra, killing 230,000 people in 14 countries, including 170,000 in Aceh. Emotional reunion: Jamaliah (left) with her daughter Raudhatul Jannah. The girl was spotted walking home from school by her uncle who recognised her despite not having seen her in 10 years It is not known where the family were living when the tsunami hit in 2004, but Jannah says she and her brother were swept to the Banyak Islands and she was then taken to Blangpidie, where she was raised by a foster mother. The girl, now 14, was reunited with her family in Meulaboh on Wednesday