Indonesia Landslide Kills Eight, More Than 80 Missing

 

A landslide killed at least eight people and left more than 80 missing on Indonesia’s main island of Java on Saturday, a disaster official said.

Triggered by heavy rainfall, it struck villages in Java’s West Bandung region in the early hours and buried residential areas.

Floods and landslides are common across the vast archipelago during the rainy season, which typically runs from October to March.

At 2:30 am (1930 GMT Friday), “there was a rumbling noise, like thunder”, Oyoh, a resident of Pasirlangu village who, like many Indonesians, only has one name, told AFP.

“It had been raining non-stop since the morning, and then it (the landslide) happened. I immediately felt scared.”

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The 52-year-old had been evacuated to the village’s government office along with dozens of others, mainly women and children.

She said her house survived the landslide, but her niece, her niece’s husband and their two children were missing.

Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the national disaster agency, confirmed that eight people were killed and 82 were unaccounted for.

West Bandung’s mayor Jeje Ritchie Ismail told reporters that the military, police and volunteers were assisting in the search.

However, he warned the terrain was extremely difficult and the ground remained unstable.

The local search and rescue agency said it was conducting manual excavation, spraying the soil with water pumps and using drones to search for the victims.

 

Forest loss

 

The disaster comes after tropical storms and intense monsoon rains late last year triggered flooding and landslides that killed around 1,200 people and displaced more than 240,000 in Indonesia’s Sumatra island, according to official figures.

Environmentalists, experts and the government have pointed to the role forest loss played in the flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages.

Forests help absorb rainfall and stabilise the ground held by their roots, and their absence makes areas more prone to flash flooding and landslides, David Gaveau, founder of conservation start-up The TreeMap, told AFP in December.

Indonesia lost more than 240,000 hectares of primary forest in 2024, according to analysis by The TreeMap’s Nusantara Atlas project.

It is regularly among the countries with the largest annual forest loss as mining, plantations and fires have caused the clearance of large tracts of lush vegetation in recent decades, NGOs have said.

The government filed multiple lawsuits following the Sumatra floods, seeking more than $200 million in damages against six firms.

It also stripped more than two dozen permits this week from forestry, mining and hydroelectric companies in Sumatra.

This month, torrential rains battered Indonesia’s Siau island, causing a flash flood that killed at least 16 people.

AFP