In a statement released on Wednesday, he said that the assistance was handed to community representatives in the presence of the Head of Puncak District, Willem Wandik, at the cargo terminal of Mozes Kilangin Airport, Timika, Central Papua.
The logistics assistance included 50 tons of rice, 10 thousand packages of instant food, 3 thousand packages of cooked meat, 3 thousand bags of protein milk, and 3 thousand packages of essential commodities.
The assistance also included 2 thousand tents, 10 thousand blankets, 4 thousand mattresses and folding mattresses, 2 thousand children's clothes, 2 thousand adult clothes, 4 units of evacuation tents, 20 electric generators, and 3 trail motorbikes.
The assistance from the central government will be delivered to Agandugume, Puncak district, using a Cessna 208 Caravan aircraft, which has a cargo capacity of up to 900 kilograms.
Agandugume is the nearest area to the most affected regions.
"Only one sortie (flight) can be flown daily depending on the weather, and that the freight capacity is 900 kilograms at once," Suharyanto informed.
The BNPB chief said that the agency has continued to help affected residents by distributing logistics and other necessary equipment. He assured that the logistical needs of the affected communities would be met.
"This support will be carried out continuously. BNPB is helping with the logistics and freight transportation during this emergency response period," he added.
Meanwhile, the delivery of assistance has been hindered by bad weather, the Secretary of Puncak District Darwin Tobing said.
According to him, obstacles have been faced in the delivery of assistance, including from the Puncak Regional government and the Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander, Admiral Yudo Margono, due to weather conditions.
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Extreme drought that destroyed crops triggered a food crisis in Indonesia’s Christian-majority conflict-ridden Papua region, leaving at least six people dead and thousands starving, an official said.
The crisis prompted President Joko Widodo and Vice President Ma'ruf Amin to order emergency food aid to residents at Puncak Regency in Central Papua Province, one of the worst-hit areas, despite the ongoing conflict between security forces and armed insurgents.
Amin said on Aug. 2 that the government had set a two-week emergency response period to help the residents.
Willem Wandik, a top state official in Puncak Regency said that 7,500 residents were experiencing severe hunger in the Agandugume and Lambewi districts.
He said that the six residents who died, including a baby, suffered from diarrhea after being forced to eat rotten tubers amid a lack of food.
He said that currently residents have received emergency cash assistance, but they have to walk for two days to reach the nearest area in Sinak District to be able to get food.
He added that airlines did not dare to bring food aid from Sinak to Agandugume for fear of being attacked by pro-independence rebel groups.
Adrianus Alla, acting director of Social Protection for Natural Disaster Victims of the Ministry of Social Affairs confirmed that they had sent 10.7 tons of food aid and his staff had met with representatives of health workers and residents of Agandugume and Lambewi.
This is not the first time Papua has been hit by famine during the dry season, which was triggered by El Nino, a climate cycle in the tropical Pacific Ocean caused by warm water which causes the dry spell.
In August last year, hundreds of residents in the Lanny Jaya district suffered from famine that left at least three people dead, after their crops failed due to cold weather during the dry season.
Catholic priest and rights activist Father Bernard Baru said that the famine in the region has been repeating, so the authorities should have prepared to face it.
"The government should have anticipated the impact on the indigenous Papuan people who are in this drought-prone location. This means that the government does not only take action when there are victims," the Papua-based priest said.
He called for a planned effort to ensure residents would not be hit by such a disaster.
Such disasters are certainly related to policy patterns that are not in favor of the environment, he said, so indigenous peoples become increasingly vulnerable when there is climate change, which is something new.
"Years ago, there was no such case in Papua. The people are still able to garden, plant and harvest to produce the food they consume themselves. But now the situation has changed," he said.
The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency stated that of the 600 seasonal zones in Indonesia, 63 percent of them have entered the dry season, the impact of El Nino.
Fachri Radjab, head of the Climate Change Information Center at the agency, said the affected areas included Sumatra, Java, Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan, South Sulawesi and Papua.
"This year's dry season is expected to be drier than three years ago. Some areas such as East Java, Yogyakarta, Bali and NTT have even experienced periods without rain for more than 60 days," he said.
Indonesia and neighboring Papua New Guinea, bordering Papua region, have previously experienced El Niño with strong intensity in 2015 and moderate intensity in 2019, Indonesia's state weather agency reported.
"Yes, the aid has already been delivered. The process went smoothly and took six shipments," she said at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta on Wednesday.
She informed that her ministry distributed the aid from July 26 to 31, 2023, which took five days and involved the use of planes.
A total of 17.1 tons of logistical assistance was distributed to the two districts: Agandugume and Lambewi.
According to the ministry's assistance distribution report, the aid included 4,000 packages of ready-to-eat food, 4,000 child food packages, 2,000 packages of side dishes, 125 boxes of canned fish, 32 boxes of canned meat, 15 boxes of meat floss, and 118 boxes of biscuits.
The aid also included 500 pieces of foldable tents, 3,000 items of children's clothing, 4,000 items of adult clothing, 4,000 units of adult pants, and 4,000 blankets.
The drought in Puncak Regency, Central Papua, has caused local people to face difficulty in obtaining clean water and has resulted in the death of six residents — five adults and an infant — due to diarrhea and dehydration.
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