4) More deaths following latest military action in West Papua
Jayapura, Indonesia, April 21 (Jubi) — The Papua Church Council said about 107,000 people have been internally displaced across Papua as of April 2026, driven by escalating violence and a worsening humanitarian crisis since late 2018.
The council said the situation has intensified in recent months, particularly between March and April, in highland areas such as Puncak and Dogiyai regencies.
Reverend Dorman Wanimbo said increased military operations have directly affected civilians, triggering mass displacement and disrupting access to basic services.
“In addition to causing casualties, the situation has disrupted education, economic activity and worship, while access to healthcare remains крайне limited,” he said in a statement issued in Jayapura on Tuesday.
He added that displaced communities face shortages of food, healthcare and protection, worsened by the expansion of military activities into civilian areas including villages, churches, schools and markets.
He also added that the recent incidents in Pogama and Kembru districts in Puncak Regency,
Central Papua, reportedly resulted in civilian casualties following military operations conducted between April 12 and 15 involving ground and air forces..
“About seven villages were directly affected, and parts of the area remain difficult to access. Witnesses said the attacks occurred in areas previously considered civilian zones and places of refuge,” he said.
Indigenous pastor John Bunay said the council believes the situation is linked to state policies, including Presidential Instructions No. 9/2017 and No. 9/2020 on accelerating development in Papua and West Papua.
“A development approach combined with a security approach has deepened the humanitarian crisis and further marginalized Indigenous Papuans,” he said.
He cited previous studies by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences identifying the root causes of the conflict as racism, development failures, political tensions and weak accountability of security forces.
“However, a peaceful dialogue approach has yet to become a primary priority,” he said.
The council called for an immediate halt to military operations in civilian areas, greater protection for civilians and unrestricted humanitarian access for displaced communities. It also urged an independent investigation into alleged human rights violations and called for access for foreign journalists to report on Papua.
They also called for the importance of peaceful dialogue as the path to resolving the conflict, urging churches, civil society, and all stakeholders to unite in prayer and concrete action to safeguard the lives of Papuans currently facing a humanitarian crisis.
Because, the future of Papua can only be built on justice, humanity, and dignified peaceful dialogue—not violence. (*)
Jayapura, Jubi — A 27-year-old man, Ony Enumbi, was shot dead in Wiyugwi Village, Mulia District, Puncak Jaya Regency, Central Papua, on Monday (April 20, 2026), with differing accounts emerging from local sources and Indonesian authorities.
A local source in Puncak Jaya said the incident occurred in the late afternoon after Enumbi had returned home from working in his garden. He was reportedly with his wife, child, and several relatives, resting in a hut near their home after a meal.
The source alleged that security personnel, described as members of the Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI), arrived at the location in three vehicles, fully armed, and entered the residential area without prior notice.
“They were conducting an inspection, and there were civilians in the hut. That’s when the shooting occurred, and everyone, including the victim and his family, fled to safety,” the source said in an audio recording received by Jubi on Tuesday (April 21, 2026).
The source said Enumbi was shot from a distance of about 15 meters. One bullet reportedly grazed his head, while another struck his shoulder from the front and exited through his back, killing him at the scene.
According to the source, the victim was later evacuated by TNI personnel to Mulia Regional General Hospital under tight security before his body was handed over to the family for cremation.
The source added that Enumbi was originally from Piliah Village, Gurage District, Puncak Regency, but had been living in Mulia for an extended period and owned a home there. He and others had moved to the area out of fear of becoming victims of ongoing armed clashes between the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) and Indonesian security forces.
Head of Public Relations for the Damai Cartenz Operation 2026, Police Commissioner Yusuf Sutejo, said personnel in the Puncak Jaya sector had “successfully neutralized” a TPNPB member identified by the initials OE, also known as ME, in Wuyukwi Village on the same day.
He said OE had been listed as a wanted suspect (DPO) under a warrant issued on April 25, 2024, in connection with a shooting that killed a member of the Elang Task Force, Sergeant (posthumous) Ismunandar, on March 17, 2024, in Kulirik Village, Muara District.
“Action was taken after personnel carried out surveillance and successfully identified the target’s whereabouts,” Sutejo said in a press statement.
According to police, the suspect attempted to flee while resisting arrest, prompting officers to take what Sutejo described as “firm and measured action” in accordance with procedures. The suspect sustained a gunshot wound to the right armpit that penetrated through to the back of the body.
He said the individual was evacuated to Mulia Regional General Hospital for treatment but was later pronounced dead.
“The perpetrator was successfully neutralized and received medical attention but was declared dead. This action is part of law enforcement efforts against armed groups that disrupt security stability,” he said.
Sutejo added that the individual had previously been detained by the Damai Cartenz Task Force on November 27, 2024, in connection with the same case but later escaped while authorities were handling a separate tribal conflict in Puncak Jaya.
“Going forward, we will strengthen security measures and procedures to prevent similar incidents,” he said.
The incident comes amid ongoing tensions and armed violence in parts of Central Papua, where clashes between Indonesian security forces and the TPNPB continue to affect civilian communities. (*)
Indonesia’s flash floods in Sumatra are not merely natural disasters; they are also symptomatic of fiscal failure. While rescue teams battled torrents of mud, a quieter tragedy unfolded in the budget books. Disaster mitigation funding was systematically crowded out by competing political agendas. It signals a concerning reality that, within Indonesia’s current fiscal hierarchy, resilience appears expendable until a disaster hits.
The crisis extends far beyond emergency response budgets. As climate change accelerates, global norms dictate that nations should ramp up environmental spending to keep risks within acceptable limits. These funds are critical for reforestation and upgrading ecological defences before disaster strikes. Yet Indonesia is moving in reverse. The Ministry of Finance reveals a chilling fiscal paradox: 236 local governments slashed their environmental spending in 2025 compared to the previous year, widening Indonesia’s climate finance gap, which is estimated to reach US$145 billion through 2030. Worse still, even among districts that do allocate environmental budgets, spending bears almost no relationship to environmental quality, suggesting that the problem runs deeper than underfunding alone (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Environmental spending vs environmental quality index across Indonesian districts, 2024
The Ministry of Finance has attempted to steer local budgets toward environmental priorities using soft fiscal instruments. Under Law Number 1 of 2022 on Central and Regional Financial Relations, land cover indices are now factored into the formula for the General Allocation Fund — the main unconditional transfer from Jakarta to the regions — theoretically rewarding areas that preserve their forests. The law also refines Revenue Sharing Funds — transfers that redistribute natural resource royalties — by compensating areas suffering from the negative externalities of resource extraction in neighbouring regions. Furthermore, the Special Allocation Fund — a conditional grant for priority sectors — explicitly directs capital into environmental maintenance. Yet these mechanisms remain largely incentives rather than binding mandates, leaving execution at the mercy of local political will.
The liquidity trap becomes evident when examining international climate finance as an alternative. Most results-based instruments, such as those from the Green Climate Fund, operate on a reimbursement model where local governments must front costs and receive payments only after verified results are achieved. Cash-constrained regions cannot sustain multi-year environmental interventions while awaiting reimbursement cycles that span several months or even years.
This funding asymmetry collides with what might be called a conservation paradox, though the reality is more complex than a simple trade-off between forests and growth. The six Papua provinces, Indonesia’s easternmost frontier, maintain forest cover exceeding 80% and harbour globally significant carbon stores. Yet the region also records Indonesia’s highest poverty rate — around 26% — despite receiving billions in special autonomy transfers and hosting the massive Grasberg copper and gold mine, one of the world’s largest. Much of Papua’s forest cover persists not because of deliberate conservation policy but because of remoteness and limited infrastructure. At the same time, extraction is actively expanding: new permits for nickel mining, palm oil plantations and logging are encroaching on primary forest, with deforestation rates rising. The paradox, then, is not that Papua has chosen conservation over development, but that neither the revenues from extraction nor the fiscal transfers from Jakarta have translated into meaningful local welfare — while the pressure to open more forest only grows.
Meanwhile, Sumatra and Kalimantan converted vast forest tracts into oil palm, timber and coal extraction zones decades ago, fuelling rapid economic growth. Without deliberate fiscal intervention, conservation-rich regions will remain cash-starved, perpetuating a system where environmental stewardship is a burden only the poorest are expected to bear.
Given this reality, mandating environmental expenditure is not only justified but necessary. A binding floor would force local leaders to allocate environmental budgets at a specified minimum, with failure to meet targets triggering fiscal penalties in future transfers — mirroring the existing 20% education mandate. Fiscal space clearly exists. The Supreme Audit Institution of Indonesia identified trillions of rupiah lost to governmental inefficiency in its 2024 financial report. Beyond this, local budgets also suffer chronic bloat from inflated payroll costs that crowd out productive expenditures. Law 1/2022 already mandates capping personnel expenses at 30% of regional budgets over coming years. These efficiency measures alone could generate sufficient savings to fund mandatory environmental spending without burdening households or crowding out essential services. The solution requires no new revenue — only fiscal discipline and reallocation.
This design has international precedents. Brazil’s ICMS-Ecológico scheme earmarks a share of state VAT-derived transfers for conservation, and research has linked it to the creation of over one million hectares of new conservation units and measurable forest recovery. China’s ecological compensation program channels billions of yuan annually to upstream provinces, conditional on forest maintenance and water quality standards; in pilot basins, water quality has improved markedly. Portugal’s municipal transfer system incorporates Natura 2000 protected areas into its equalisation formulas, channelling additional funds to municipalities that host conservation land. These cases demonstrate that binding fiscal mandates can reshape budget allocations and generate measurable ecological outcomes. Table 1 summarises these models alongside the proposed Indonesian mechanism, highlighting both documented outcomes and inherent limitations that Indonesia’s design should address.
Table 1: Ecological fiscal transfer models: an international comparison
Mandating environmental spending at the subnational level would also strengthen Indonesia’s appeal to international climate finance. A critical barrier to accessing such funds has been concern over accountability and fund utilisation. Binding environmental spending mandates across central and local budgets would create institutional safeguards that transform investor risk assessments. The Supreme Audit Institution can conduct comprehensive audits covering both financial compliance and performance outcomes of climate expenditures. Equally important, local governments possess substantial discretionary funds that can be mobilised toward genuine climate resilience projects. When mandatory frameworks are in place, international investors gain assurance that their capital flows toward infrastructure and conservation rather than vanishing into opaque procurement cycles or politically motivated spending. This fiscal transparency could convert Indonesia from a climate finance risk into a credible investment destination, helping to close the US$145 billion gap in climate financing needed to meet 2030 targets.
4) More deaths following latest military action in West Papua
The Indonesian military has been accused of attacking a refugee camp in West Papua territory, reportedly killing at least nine people including a toddler and a pregnant woman.
Free West Papua campaigners have labelled last week's latest attack which came to the attention of western media several days later an unqualified "colonial destruction".
Eyewitnesses say terrified villagers of the Puncak Regency's Kembru districtwere bombarded early in the morning with an array of modern weaponry.
Less destructive operations were also alleged to have been carried out in the Sinak and Pogoma districts of the regency.
United Liberation Movement for West Papua interim chairman, Benny Wenda, said recent actions from strongarm government forces across the western side of the New Guinea Highlands are continuing to intensify.
The violence follows another massacre earlier in the month where at least five people were killed at the hands of Indonesian police in the Dogiyai Regency.
"The true number of victims is currently impossible to know, as Indonesia has blockaded other-affected districts, preventing people and information from getting in or out," Mr Wenda, who is living in exile in London, said about the latest alleged attack. Mr Wenda said the violence has also resulted in "massive internal displacement" in the region, with numerous people forced to flee their homes as a result of the attacks.
One eyewitness told Free West Papua campaigners the bodies of the nine people most recently killed have been burnt in what appears to be a cover-up of the deaths.
The lives of Amer Walia, 77, Tiagen Walia, 76, Pelen Kogoya, 65, Kikungge Walia, 55, Deremet Telenggen, 55, Inikiwewo Walia, 52, Ekimira Kogoya, 47, Wundili Kogoya, 36, and Para Walia, 5, were confirmed to have been taken.
Military operations reportedly commenced around 5am as four attack helicopters began a bombing campaign on a Kembru refugee camp.which were accompanied by ground forces, who were said to shoot indiscriminately into the makeshift shelters.
The helicopters were accompanied by ground forces, who reportedly shot indiscriminately into the makeshift shelters.
The West Papuan civilians were said to be sleeping in their beds when the carnage unfolded.
The victims of the latest Kembru attack were forced from their West Papua homes by previous rounds of military violence in the occupied territory.
"Those refugees that were displaced further into the bush will have no access to healthcare" Mr Wenda said.
"Their children will not be able to attend school.
"Their crops and their livelihoods will perish, as the military prevents them from accessing their gardens.
"Many people will no doubt die from hunger or disease, as over 1100 West Papuans have since 2019.
"Indonesia is a criminal in West Papua and should be made a pariah on the international stage for their actions against my people.
"The inhumane culture of impunity that produced this massacre is a direct result of Indonesia's deliberate isolation of West Papua."
After the camps were first bombed in February, the event marks the second occasion where military forces have targeted Kembru this year, the conflict forcing former residents of nine villages to flee into the nearby forest.
Indonesia's latest attack appears to have been far more brutal and indiscriminate, with the military allegedly utilising bombs, guns, drones and grenades to kill civilians and destroy their temporary homes.
Indonesia's bombing of Kembru appears to be in direct contravention of a 2025 agreement made between the Indonesian military command and the West Papua National Liberation Army, which designated the entire Kembru district as a safe area for refugees.
Bombing designated safe zones, which includes any form of refugee camps, has been declared a crime against humanity by the United Nations and, according to the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, those military forces responsible should be tried for war crimes in the International Court of Justice in the Hague.
"Make no mistake: the targeting of children, pregnant women, and elders is a direct result of a government policy that views all West Papuans as terrorists," Mr Wenda said.
"In the eyes of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, all West Papuans are Kelompok Kriminal Bersenjata (Armed Criminal Group).
"They look on us as subhuman, squatters in our own land, although we've been its guardians for thousands of years."
The United Liberation Movement for West Papua has repeated its demand for Indonesia to allow the international community into the territory to aid its own refugees "at this time of acute crisis".
This extends to allowing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to report from West Papua, in accordance with the demands of more than 110 UN member states, as well as allowing international journalists and non-government organisations — including the International Red Cross — to freely operate in West Papua without fear of expulsion or harassment, and for an internationally-mediated referendum on self-determination for West Papua.
"I also call on actors within the international community, particularly the Pacific, to do more to pressure Indonesia to open West Papua to the eyes of the world," Mr Wenda said.
Indonesia's Human Rights Minister, Natalius Pigai, said those people responsible for any civilian attacks will face legal repercussions.
