BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – Further heavy rain threatened Indonesia’s flood-ravaged island of Sumatra on Dec 6 as the governor of one hard-hit province warned that the death toll could climb beyond 883 because of starvation.

A chain of tropical storms and monsoonal rains has pummelled South-east and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the Sumatran rainforest to the

highland plantations of Sri Lanka

Some 1,770 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam since last week.

Indonesia’s national weather agency said rain could return on Dec 6 to the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, where floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt and cut off supplies.

Aceh governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies in “waist-deep” mud.

However, starvation was one of the gravest threats now hanging over remote and inaccessible villages.

“Many people need basic necessities. Many areas remain untouched in the remote areas of Aceh,” he told reporters.

“People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation. That’s how it is.”

Entire villages had been washed away in the rainforest-cloaked Aceh Tamiang region, Mr Muzakir said.

“The Aceh Tamiang region is completely destroyed, from the top to the bottom, down to the roads and down to the sea.

“Many villages and sub-districts are now just names,” he said.

Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt “betrayed” by the Indonesian government, which has so far shrugged off press...