The tribe members are starving after rats and wild boar ate their crops, mainly tuber.
he Maluku Police have prepared to send emergency food aid to a nomadic tribe in a remote forest in Seram Island, Central Maluku regency, Maluku, after receiving reports of famine that had killed three people.
The tribe, Mausu Ane, lives in Maneo village, which is located on Morkelle mountain. It is an eight hours’ drive and another eight hours’ hike from the nearest large town, Masohi.
Maneo village is home to 45 families comprising 175 people.
The police cannot meet the tribe members themselves and have to send the aid through the Maneo king, Nikolas Boiratan.
"We have responded quickly,” said Maluku Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Muhammad Roem Ohoirat as quoted by Antara on Monday.
The police have spoken to Boiratan and agreed on the type of aid to send to the tribe: 1 metric ton of rice, 200 boxes of instant noodles, 100 kilograms of sugar, medicine and medical staff.
The delivery team will depart on Wednesday, pick up Boiratan, who is also the village head, and meet up with the Mausu Ane tribe members in Siahari village by Thursday afternoon.
Terasmaluku.com reported that a Central Maluku official, Syahril Tuakia, had met with the tribe members themselves. Tuakia, head of logistics at the Central Maluku Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), said an elderly villager and two children under the age of five had died because of lack of food.
The famine was the result of a harvest failure, he added. The crops, mainly tubers, were eaten by rats and wild boar.
The tribespeople have struggled to survive on leaves and rattan roots. (nor/evi)
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