07/12/2025

WORLD 7 theSun on Sunday DEC 7, 2025

Starvation fears loom over remote parts of Sumatra

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has unveiled a major compensation package to rebuild homes damaged by a cyclone, even as it prepared for further landslides and flooding. The government has confirmed 607 deaths, with another 214 people missing. More than two million people, nearly 10% of the population have been affected. Survivors will be offered up to 10 million rupees (RM135,644) to buy land at a safer location and build a new house, the Finance Ministry said. The government is also offering one million rupees as compensation for each person killed or permanently disabled. The Disaster Management Centre said more than 71,000 homes were damaged, including nearly 5,000 that were destroyed. About 150,000 people remain in state-run shelters, down from a peak of 225,000. – AFP Sri Lanka unveils cyclone aid plan KANDAHAR: An exchange of fire at a Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing killed four civilians, an Afghan official said yesterday. Four others were wounded, said Abdul Karim Jahad, the governor of Spin Boldak district in southern Afghanistan. The local hospital at the Pakistani border town of Chaman said three people had been discharged after suffering minor injuries during the clash. Each side accused the other of launching “unprovoked” attacks at the crossing between Chaman and Spin Boldak despite a truce agreed after clashes in October . “Unfortunately, the Pakistani side started attacking in Kandahar and Afghan troops were forced to respond,” government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on X. Pakistan said it was Afghanistan that had fired first. – AFP Thousands flee NSW bushfires SYDNEY: Wildfires in New South Wales burnt through thousands of hectares of bushland yesterday, prompting the authorities to urge evacuations. The alert was for the Phegans Bay and Woy Woy area in the the state’s central coast region, with a population of more than 350,000 people, about 45km north of the state capital Sydney. As many as 16 homes were lost as bushfires burned across the region, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported. “Leave now if the path is clear towards Woy Woy,” the Rural Fire Service said on its website. A heatwave in New South Wales, bringing temperatures of 42º C, exacerbated fire risk in the area, the Bureau of Meteorology said. – Reuters Four Afghans killed in clash

BANDA ACEH: Further heavy rain threatened Sumatra yesterday as the governor of one hard-hit province warned that the death toll could climb beyond 883 because of starvation. A chain of tropical storms and monsoon rains has pummelled Southeast and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the Sumatran rainforest to the highland plantations of Sri Lanka. Some 1,770 people have been killed in natural disasters unfolding across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam since last week. Indonesia’s weather agency said rain could return yesterday to Aceh and North Sumatra, where floods have swept away roads, smothered houses in silt and cut off supplies. Aceh governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies. However, starvation was one of the gravest threats hanging over remote and inaccessible villages. “Many people need basic necessities. Many areas remain untouched,” he told reporters. “People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation.” Entire villages had been washed away in the rainforest cloaked Aceh Tamiang region, Muzakir said. “The Aceh Tamiang region is destroyed, down to the roads and down to the sea. Devastation worst than feared earlier

Residents queuing to collect relief supplies in Kuala Simpang in Aceh. – REUTERSPIC

Indonesia’s death toll rose to 883 yesterday, according to the disaster management agency, with 520 people missing. Sri Lanka’s death toll jumped by more than 100 on Friday to 607, Thailand has reported 276 deaths and at least two people were killed in Vietnam. Environmentalists and Indonesia’s government said logging and deforestation exacerbated landslides and flooding in Sumatra. – AFP

Declaring a national disaster would free up resources and help government agencies coordinate their response. Indonesia’s government this week insisted it could handle the fallout. The scale of devastation has only just become clear in other parts of Sumatra as engorged rivers shrink and floodwaters recede. Humanitarian groups fear that the scale of calamity could be without precedent, even for a nation prone to natural disasters.

“Many villages and sub districts are now just names,” he said. Aceh resident Munawar Liza Zainal said he felt “betrayed” by the government, which has shrugged off pressure to declare a national disaster. “This is an extraordinary disaster that must be faced with extraordinary measures,” he said, echoing frustrations voiced by others affected by the floods. “If national disaster status is only declared later, what’s the point?”

Myanmar citizens head to early polls

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BANGKOK: A few dozen early voters cast their ballots at the Myanmar embassy here yesterday as polls opened for citizens abroad. The phased election is slated to begin late this month, but early voting abroad has begun at a few embassies, including in Hong Kong, Singapore, Chiang Mai and Bangkok. There was a heavy police presence yesterday at the Bangkok embassy, where AFP journalists saw about 25 people sign up in the first two hours of polling. Several voters declined to comment. There are about half a million documented Myanmar nationals in the capital, according to Thailand’s Labour Ministry. The International

Migration estimates there are 4.1 million Myanmar nationals living in Thailand, many of whom have fled the war and are undocumented. Embassy officials said they did not know how many had filled the required voting registration form, which had an Oct 15 deadline. Deposed lawmakers excluded from the vote, human rights monitors and rebel groups have dismissed the election as a charade to disguise continuing military rule. The military government introduced broad new legislation ahead of the polls, including clauses punishing protesting or criticising the election with up to a decade in prison. – AFP

Myanmar nationals queue up outside the embassy in Bangkok. – AFPPIC