Indonesia’s Mount Merapi spewed heat clouds and ash yesterday as the country struggled to care for some 65,000 people displaced by the volcano and a deadly tsunami.
Searing gray fumes and ash shot high into the sky and rolled down the slopes of the 2,914m mountain, Indonesia’s most active volcano, spreading fear and panic among nearby residents in central Java.
Merapi, a sacred landmark in Javanese culture whose name translates as “Mountain of Fire,” has convulsed regularly since last Tuesday’s major eruptions, driving up to 50,000 people into temporary shelters.
“There’ll be more eruptions as not all the energy has been released. Eruptions will continue to take place in the weeks ahead,” vulcanologist Surono said.
About 1,300km to the west, officials said aid was slowly reaching survivors of a tsunami which crushed coastal villages on the Mentawai island chain off the coast of Sumatra last Monday.
The latest official death toll stood at 431 with another 88 missing, feared dead, and almost 15,000 made homeless.
Emergency response officials denied reports that aid is rotting in ports as desperate survivors scavenge for wild roots a week after the disaster, which struck in an area that scientists have long warned is vulnerable to tsunamis.
“The delays were due to unfriendly weather, but now we can reach the affected areas and aid is being sent, although it’s limited,” an official named Joskamatir said.
UNTRUE REPORTS
He dismissed reports of looting, poor coordination of the relief effort and food going bad on the docks as “untrue.”
The 3m wave was triggered by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake and flattened around 10 villages, destroying schools, mosques and traditional homes along remote and undeveloped beaches popular with foreign surfers.
Survivors have complained that aid has been too slow to reach them and relief workers have said coordination has been poor.
On Saturday, five days after the disaster, one villager said he had been surviving on wild taro roots because aid still had not reached his devastated village, where he said about half the population had been killed.
“They’re just surviving on yams and bananas and have dug wells to get fresh water. They also drink water from the rivers. Some are falling ill with flu, fevers and coughs,” Demas Sakerebau, a village chief from North Pagai island, said yesterday.
He said aid had reached one hamlet for the first time only on Sunday and described relief packages being dropped by helicopters into the sea, flooded rice paddies and trees.
Officials admit that only a -fraction of supplies such as food, water, tents, medicine and blankets that have reached nearby ports have been distributed to survivors, citing bad weather and a lack of boats and helicopters.
“We understand that there’s been bad weather, that’s a serious challenge, but this should have been predicted earlier,” said Khalid Saifullah, a coordinator for independent local aid agencies.
SLOW AID
Tonnes of aid have been piling up at the Sumatran port of Padang, half a day’s voyage away by sea from the worst-hit islands and at unaffected towns on the Mentawais such as Sikakap and Tua Pejat.
Australia and the US have pledged aid worth a total of US$3 million dollars while the European Commission released 1.5 million euros (US$2 million) for victims of both disasters.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited tsunami survivors on Thursday and said the “only long-term solution” was for people to move away from the most vulnerable coastal areas.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in