Arya News - As of Monday night, the death toll had reached 961, with at least 289 people still missing and around 5,000 injured. More than 157,000 houses and over 1,200 public facilities have been damaged in 52 regencies, according to authorities.
JAKARTA/MEDAN – With fatalities from the hydrometeorological disaster in Sumatra approaching 1,000 and numerous regions still struggling to receive aid, questions are growing over whether the government can manage the situation without international assistance.
Two weeks have passed since flash floods and landslides triggered by a rare tropical cyclone first struck Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, leaving a devastating impact on residents and infrastructure in the northern tip of the island.
As of Monday night, the death toll across the three provinces had reached 961, with at least 289 people still unaccounted for and around 5,000 injured. More than 157,000 houses and over 1,200 public facilities have been damaged in 52 regencies, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB).
BNPB spokesperson Abdul Muhari said that more displaced residents were found in East Aceh and Bener Meriah regencies in Aceh, bringing the total of evacuees across three provinces to over 1 million and 57,000 people.
“It is our responsibility to continue optimizing logistics distribution to those in evacuation centers to ensure their basic food and non-food needs are met,” Abdul said during a livestreamed press conference on Monday.
Meanwhile, BNPB head Lt. Gen. Suharyanto said dozens of regions, particularly in Aceh, remain cut off from aid deliveries due to inaccessible roads. In both North and West Sumatra, at least seven villages across two regencies in each province remain isolated.
“We are also short of mobile water tankers on the ground, which means clean water supplies are disrupted, so we’re asking for more water tankers to help [isolated residents],” Suharyanto said on Sunday evening during a meeting with President Prabowo Subianto in Aceh’s provincial capital Banda Aceh.
Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf pleaded for urgent action in his province, warning that public health is rapidly deteriorating.
“We are severely lacking in medicines, and people are starting to get rashes and other illnesses,” he said during the same meeting. “The people also have no stock of clothes or cooking gas at all.”
Despite continuous aid and rescue attempts by the central government, the BNPB’s Suharyanto noted the dire need to accelerate the distribution process.
“For all isolated areas, even though hundreds of items of logistics have been sent [by air], we still have to send more because air transport’s delivery capacity is limited,” he said.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin also said on Sunday that Aceh faced a severe shortage of doctors, with many medical personnel themselves affected by the disaster.
Local residents walk on logs that are being used as a temporary bridge following a deadly flash flood in Batang Toru, South Tapanuli, North Sumatra, December 7, 2025. (Reuters/Willy Kurniawan)
Capability concerns
The slow pace of rescue and aid delivery has raised questions about the government’s disaster response capacity two weeks into the crisis.
Saut Sagala, deputy director of the Bandung Institute of Technology’s (ITB) Disaster Mitigation Research Center, said regions had no choice but to seek help from volunteers.
“This certainly reflects a gap in coordination and response flexibility at the central level,” Saut told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
Aceh has welcomed volunteers, including five Chinese experts from an NGO to assist in recovering bodies in East Aceh, North Aceh, and Aceh Tamiang regencies.
“The Chinese government offered to help look for those who are still missing. Since we don’t have the resources, we accepted the offer,” Aceh administration spokesperson Teuku Kamaruzzaman told the Post on Saturday, highlighting the province’s lack of sophisticated equipment.
Calls are growing for the government to open itself to international assistance, given the number of countries and organizations offering support.
President Prabowo has so far resisted declaring a national emergency, a designation that would allow foreign aid, maintaining that the current province-level emergency status is sufficient.
“This disaster is a calamity, but it is also a test. Thank God, we are strong; we overcome problems with our own [strength],” he said during a Golkar Party event last Friday.
Under former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Indonesia accepted foreign aid following the 2018 Central Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami that struck Palu, Central Sulawesi, helping to expedite emergency response and early recovery.
Asian Disaster Reduction Center (ADRC) researcher Mizan BF Bisri said the move “greatly helped the government’s response”, as more than a dozen countries sent logistical support and financial aid.
Kamaruzzaman from the Aceh administration noted that at least eight countries, including Turkey, Russia and the United States were ready to help the province with disaster mitigation.
ITB’s Saut said this could be “the right time for the government to consider” accepting international aid.
“Receiving foreign assistance is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of responsibility toward efforts that can save lives and restore livelihoods as quickly as possible,” he said. “Global solidarity should be seen as an additional strength, not a threat to sovereignty.”
A police helicopter delivers relief supplies for survivors in an area affected by a deadly flash flood following heavy rains in Karang Baru, Aceh Tamiang, Aceh, December 6, 2025. (Reuters/Ajeng Dinar Ulfiana)
Mizan of the ADRC added that the government could request targeted international help for areas beyond its immediate capacity.
“The assistance we seek could be limited to family tents, multi-purpose communal shelters, water purification and early recovery efforts,” he said.
Neither State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi nor the presidential spokespersons immediately responded to requests for comments.
During Sunday’s meeting in Aceh, President Prabowo said the government had been “quite responsive”, noting that the tragic disaster must be addressed within a broader perspective and called for an end to corruption, which he said exacerbated crises.
“When trials [like these] hit us, we must also consider the nation’s larger problems,” he said. “This is yet another proof that we must manage all our nation’s wealth as best we can”. (yve)
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