On the 7th day of the floods and landslides across 18 districts/cities in Aceh, several areas are still receiving minimal assistance, both in terms of evacuation and logistics, from the Government. Victims continue to fall, with fatalities, missing persons, and starvation. This disaster has also resulted in loss of property, infrastructure damage, and loss of livelihoods.
The damage from this disaster is comprehensive, ultimately making it difficult for the people of Aceh to carry on with their lives. Several regional heads in Aceh have repeatedly expressed being overwhelmed by impassable roads, insufficient logistics, and inadequate regional finances. Furthermore, the scale of the disaster damage is massive and has occurred almost entirely in every sub-district within the affected districts/cities. This situation is detrimental to flood victims throughout Aceh.
Undeniably, up to the seventh day post-disaster, many victims remain unaided, missing persons have not been found, logistics supplies are not reaching their destinations, and the availability of various essential goods is lacking, causing panic even among those not directly affected by the disaster.
The Central Government’s stance of not declaring the Aceh floods a National Disaster Emergency is proof that the Central Government does not care about the victims. Given these conditions, the Aceh Government must immediately step up and utilize all its capabilities to address the impacts of the major floods in Aceh. The Aceh Government must immediately refocus or reallocate the Aceh Revenue and Expenditure Budget (APBA) into disaster management spending (Unexpected Expenditure/BTT), and use it to handle the flood disaster. This includes reallocating funds from unnecessary expenditures amidst the people’s hardship, such as the Rp 6.5 billion budget for official vehicles for Aceh’s representative office in Jakarta, the Rp 12 billion budget for seedlings at the Agriculture and Plantation Office, and other non-essential spending.
In response to the central government’s slow reaction to the current hydro-meteorological disaster conditions, the Aceh Civil Society Coalition states the following:
- Immediately conduct budget refocusing, whether through the Revised 2025 APBA or the 2026 APBA, for disaster management needs.
- Optimize command posts at disaster sites to ensure responses are swift, on-target, and meet community needs.
- Ensure aid distribution by removing bureaucratic obstacles, ensuring transparency, and prioritizing vulnerable groups such as children, women, the elderly, and persons with disabilities.
- The government should periodically implement market operations to ensure the supply of basic needs, such as food, fuel, water, electricity, and telecommunications networks, remains available at stable prices.
- Strengthen long-term disaster mitigation, including river basin rehabilitation, forest area protection, risk-based spatial planning, and the serious and consistent implementation of climate change adaptation policies.
Banda Aceh, December 3, 2025.
Contact Persons:
Alfian (081265632151) | Aceh Transparency Society (MaTA)
Rahmad Maulidin (082272616881) | Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute (LBH Banda Aceh)
Reza Munawir (082163966634) | Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) Banda Aceh
Syahrul (085398692548) | Indonesian Justice and Peace Foundation (YKPI)
Reza Idria (08116827717) | International Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies (ICAIOS)
Azharul Husna (085277848169) | Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS) Aceh