Update on South Africans Affected by Tsunami - Wednesday 19 January 2005

Pretoria- Five more South Africans who were unaccounted for have now been located safe and sound on Wednesday 19 January 2005 thus bringing down the number of unaccounted South Africans following the devastating Tsunami tragedy to five.

In a period of three weeks the Foreign Ministry's Consular Services both in Pretoria and Thailand working closely with affected families have managed to trace a total of 2900 relatives who were unaccounted for in the South East Asia Region.

Of these 11 have now been confirmed dead and four remain on the official list of missing persons. In this regard, the Foreign Ministry is awaiting the outcome DNA processing that were initiated by the Thailand authorities for utilisation in the Victim Identification Process.

In the meantime, the Foreign Ministry will continue to work with Interpol with a view to tracking down all missing and unaccounted South Africans.

The Foreign Ministry expresses its gratitude to members of affected families and members of the public for their co-operation in tracing missing and unaccounted South Africans.

Issued by Ronnie Mamoepa at 082-990-4853
Department of Foreign Affairs
P/Bag X152
Pretoria
0001
19 January 2005.