COLOMBO: Sri Lankan authorities issued fresh landslide warnings on Sunday with rains lashing areas already devastated by a powerful cyclone, as the death toll rose to 627.

A chain of tropical storms and monsoon rains has battered Southeast and South Asia, setting off landslides, flooding vast tracts and cutting off communities from Sumatra island’s rainforests to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka.

At least 1,826 people have been killed in the natural disasters rolling across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam over the past two weeks.

Indonesia’s president on Sunday vowed to step up aid, with demonstrators rallying after the country’s death toll surpassed 900.

Over two million people in Sri Lanka — nearly 10 per cent of the population — have been affected by last week’s floods and landslides triggered by Cyclone Ditwah.

The Disaster Management Centre said monsoon storms were adding more rain and making hillsides unstable, including in the central mountainous region and the northwestern midlands.

Helicopters and planes were being used to supply communities cut off by landslides in the centre of the country.

The Sri Lanka Air Force said it had received a planeload of relief supplies from Myanmar, the latest batch of foreign aid.

The government has confirmed 627 dead, including 471 from the lush tea-growing central region, while 190 people remain unaccounted for.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2025