Jakarta, December 6, 2025: Ruinous floods and landslides have killed more than 900 people on Indonesia’s island of Sumatra, the country’s disaster management agency reported on Saturday, with fears that starvation could push the death toll even higher.
A chain of tropical storms and monsoonal rains has battered Southeast and South Asia, triggering landslides and flash floods from the Sumatran rainforest to Sri Lanka’s highland plantations. Over the past week, more than 1,790 people have died in disasters across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam.
In Indonesia’s Aceh and North Sumatra provinces, floods have swept away roads, buried homes under silt, and cut off vital supplies. Aceh Governor Muzakir Manaf said response teams were still searching for bodies in “waist-deep” mud, while starvation emerged as a pressing threat in remote villages.
“Many people need basic necessities. Many areas remain untouched in the remote areas of Aceh,” he told reporters. “People are not dying from the flood, but from starvation. That’s how it is.”
Entire villages were washed away in Aceh Tamiang, Muzakir added. “The Aceh Tamiang region is completely destroyed, from the top to the bottom, down to the roads and down to the sea. Many villages and sub-districts are now just names.”
Flood survivors described harrowing conditions. Aceh Tamiang resident Fachrul Rozi said he had spent the week cramped into an old shop with others, surviving on meager supplies, while Munawar Liza Zainal expressed frustration at the government for not declaring a national disaster. Analysts note that declaring such a status would unlock additional resources and improve coordination of relief efforts.
As floodwaters recede, the scale of devastation is becoming clearer. AFP photos showed villagers in North Sumatra salvaging silt-covered furniture from destroyed homes. Humanitarian groups have warned that the calamity could be unprecedented, even for Indonesia, which is prone to natural disasters.
Indonesia’s official death toll rose to 908, with 410 people still missing. Sri Lanka reported 607 fatalities, Thailand 276, Malaysia two, and Vietnam at least two deaths.
Experts attribute the severity of the floods and landslides to climate change, which is making seasonal monsoons increasingly erratic and deadly, as well as logging and deforestation in Sumatra, which exacerbated the impact of heavy rains.
