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As with much of Indonesia, the country s eastern-most provinces of Papua and West Papua are struggling to contain the spread of Covid-19, with the Delta variant on the loose.
In their latest update, health authorities in Papua province reported 33,826 confirmed cases of the virus to date, as well as 794 known deaths. In West Papua province, there were 18,027 confirmed cases and 278 deaths.
A Papuan man receives a dose of the Sinovac Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine conducted by Indonesian navy medical team at Sorong seaport, in Sorong, West Papua, July 18, 2021.
Photo: IRIANTI / AFP
Earlier this week, the Papua provincial health spokesman Silvanus Sumule spoke to media outside a hospital in downtown Jayapura, explaining that hospital capacity had passed 100 percent, while they re short on oxygen tanks for Covid patients.
[AFP]
Twelve suspected Islamic militants taken into custody in a southern district of Indonesia’s troubled Papua region had planned to attack a local archbishop and police stations there, authorities said Tuesday.
The suspects arrested in Papua’s Merauke regency on Friday and Sunday were linked to a cell of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah, an Indonesian militant network affiliated with the so-called Islamic State (IS) group, police said.
Indonesian authorities had blamed JAD for suicide attacks that targeted churches in other parts of the Muslim-majority country in March 2021 and May 2018.
“The targets were the bishop and police stations in Merauke,” Untung Sangaji, Merauke police chief, told BenarNews.
Reuters
Indonesia’s military and national police chiefs visited the rebellious Papua region Friday, in a rare joint trip to discuss security there with field commanders after insurgents dealt government forces setbacks, including assassinating an army general last month.
Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, head of the armed forces (TNI), and Gen. Listyo Sigit Prabowo, the chief of police, arrived together on Thursday night as a firefight with the separatist rebels flared up in Papua’s Ilaga district. Ilaga is in Puncak, a regency where insurgents have mounted deadly attacks lately.
On Friday, the chiefs met in nearby Mimika regency with leaders and members of a joint military-police counter-insurgency task force, before the two were scheduled to return to Jakarta in the late afternoon, officials said.