INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE TO DECLARE A NATIONAL DISASTER IS COSTING LIVES — PAJAN URGES URGENT INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE AND HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION
Pic: Ibnu Sakdan Abubakar (Executive Director Of PAJAN)
Prepared By: PO
PRESS STATEMENT
PAJAN – Peace And Justice For Action
Executive Director: Ibnu Sakdan Abubakar
For Immediate Release
INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE TO DECLARE A NATIONAL DISASTER IS COSTING LIVES — PAJAN URGES URGENT INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE AND HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION
Pic: Ibnu Sakdan Abubakar (Executive Director Of PAJAN)
The massive floods and landslides that have devastated Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra have escalated into the largest humanitarian crisis in Sumatra in the past two decades. Yet the Government of Indonesia has failed to declare a National Disaster Status, severely restricting the full mobilization of national resources and blocking critical access for international humanitarian assistance.
This delay is not merely an administrative oversight — it is a state failure that is directly costing thousands of lives.
BNPB DATA: THE SCALE OF TRAGEDY CONTINUES TO ESCALATE
According to the latest official updates from Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) as of 5–6 December 2025:
709–846 people have been confirmed dead across Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra.
499–547 individuals remain missing, including many children and elderly persons.
More than 2,600 people have been injured, many with serious and untreated wounds.
Over 1 million people have been displaced or severely affected, most without access to basic necessities.
Extensive destruction of thousands of homes, bridges, major roads, schools, health facilities, and clean water systems.
Thousands of families have lost their livelihoods — farmlands destroyed, livestock lost, plantations swept away, and essential tools or equipment gone.
Tens of districts remain fully or partially isolated, making rescue operations and logistical access extremely difficult.
PAJAN FIELD REPORTS: SURVIVORS ARE IN A STATE OF DEEP DISTRESS
PAJAN’s emergency teams on the ground have documented severe humanitarian suffering:
Children are forced to drink contaminated floodwater due to the absence of clean water.
Elderly people, pregnant women, and persons with disabilities have received no medical assistance.
Hundreds of families are sleeping on bare ground without tents, blankets, or any form of basic shelter.
Some survivors have requested coffins, expressing a total loss of hope that help will ever arrive.
This is not merely an ecological disaster — it is a grave violation of the rights to life, health, clean water, food, and human dignity, as protected under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and other binding international human rights frameworks.
PAJAN CALLS FOR GLOBAL INTERVENTION — NOW, NOT LATER
Given the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian conditions, PAJAN urgently calls on the international community to take immediate action:
1. The United Nations, OCHA, UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR, IFRC, and all global humanitarian agencies to initiate emergency deployments and press the Indonesian Government to open unrestricted access for international aid.
2. The UN Human Rights Council and relevant Special Rapporteurs to investigate potential human rights violations arising from state negligence in disaster response.
3. Partner states and humanitarian donors to explore bilateral humanitarian entry mechanisms to ensure life-saving assistance reaches affected populations.
4. The establishment of an independent international investigative mechanism to examine deforestation, ecological degradation, governance failures, and structural factors that contributed to the scale of the disaster.
INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT MUST ACT NOW
PAJAN strongly urges the Government of Indonesia to:
Immediately declare the Sumatra floods and landslides a NATIONAL DISASTER.
Activate full national emergency coordination systems and resource mobilization.
Open humanitarian access for international organizations without bureaucratic obstacles.
Guarantee protection and assistance for all affected communities, especially vulnerable groups.
Conduct a structural review of environmental governance, land-use policies, and disaster-risk management failures.
Every hour of delay costs more lives.
Every decision not taken is a denial of human dignity.
Every barrier to humanitarian access is a moral failure of the state toward its own people.
STATEMENT FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Ibnu Sakdan Abubakar | Executive Director, PAJAN
> “This disaster is not fate — it is the consequence of failed policy and state negligence. When the government refuses to declare a national disaster, it closes the door to international assistance that could save thousands of lives. We call on the world not to remain silent. International pressure is now the only path to ensure that the people of Sumatra are not left to die in silence.”
