MANILA, Philippines – The death toll from Super Typhoon Haiyan has risen above 6,000, with nearly 2,000 other people still missing, the Philippine government said Friday (December 13th).

Five weeks after the typhoon destroyed entire towns across the nation's central islands on November 8th, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) put the official death toll at 6,009, making it the Philippines' deadliest typhoon on record.

The NDRRMC said it was still looking for 1,779 missing people amid an international relief and rehabilitation effort covering a devastated area the size of Portugal.

As part of the international aid effort, an Indonesian official who helped rebuild Aceh after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was in the Philippines on Friday to help the neighbouring country recover from the typhoon.

Senior Minister Kuntoro Mangkusubroto visited the hard-hit central city of Tacloban at the Philippine government's invitation to provide insights on managing large-scale recovery programmes, the United Nations Development Programme said in a statement.