TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsAceh evacuees battle hunger, illness amid aid delays
Many evacuees have been forced to take shelter along the roadside, enduring scorching heat by day and cold temperatures at night due to a lack of temporary shelters. Residents are resorting to filtering water from puddles left by the flood to meet their basic drinking needs.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Flood-affected residents walk along a muddy road in Kuala Simpang village in Aceh Tamiang, North Sumatra, on Dec. 2, 2025. (AFP/Iwan Gunadi Batubara)
N
ine days after catastrophic floods and landslides struck northern and western regions of Sumatra, thousands of evacuees in Aceh remain isolated and cut off from aid, facing severe shortages of food and clean water.
Panji Akbar, a resident sheltering in a temporary shelter at a high school in Manyak Payed district, Aceh Tamiang regency, said many evacuees had fallen ill while trying to survive on meager rations.
“We have not received any aid from the government. We are doing everything we can to survive, including drinking unfiltered river water,” he said on Wednesday.
Panji recounted walking 12 kilometers with his mother and siblings to reach the shelter after massive flooding destroyed their home. The facility currently houses around 1,000 people.
He added that electricity had been out in the area since the flooding began, and internet connections remain unreliable. Evacuees are also facing a critical fuel shortage, with gasoline reportedly selling for up to seven times the normal price.
Read also: Frustration grows over govt’s poor disaster response
Fira, a resident of Lunduh village in Aceh Tamiang, said many villagers had been forced to take shelter along the roadside, enduring scorching heat by day and cold temperatures at night due to a lack of temporary shelters. Residents are resorting to filtering water from puddles left by the flood to meet their basic drinking needs.
