Death toll from widespread flooding and landslides that devastated Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra has climbed to 712 people, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) reported on Tuesday afternoon, December 2, 2025.

The agency added that another 507 people remain missing as emergency teams struggle to gain access to remote districts hit hardest by last week’s disaster.

BNPB data show 218 fatalities in Aceh with 227 people still unaccounted for, while North Sumatra recorded 301 deaths and 163 missing. In West Sumatra, authorities reported 193 deaths and 117 missing.

More than 2,564 people suffered injuries across the three provinces, and the number of residents affected by the disaster has surged to 3.3 million, underscoring the scale of one of Indonesia’s deadliest natural disasters in recent years.

BNPB said that flash floods and landslides struck around 50 regencies and municipalities, leaving thousands of homes severely damaged, isolating villages, and destroying key infrastructure.

The Center of Economic and Law Studies (Celios) estimated economic losses from the disaster could reach Rp68.67 trillion(US$4.13 billion), taking into account damages to homes, bridges, agricultural land and infrastructure, as well as lost household income.

Celios calculated losses based on five categories: Housing damages, estimated at Rp30 million per house; Bridge destruction, with reconstruction costs at Rp1 billion each; Household income losses calculated from average daily earnings multiplied by 20 workdays; Agricultural losses valued at Rp6,500 per kg, assuming rice yields of 7 tons per hectare, and Road repairs estimated at Rp100 million per kilometer.

The think tank warned that the scale of destruction would likely slow regional economic recovery and strain local government budgets already stretched by disaster response costs.

Environmental watchdog, Indonesia Environmental Forum (Walhi) said the disaster cannot be attributed to extreme weather alone. Instead, it argues that years of aggressive land conversion have severely weakened ecological resilience in the region.

Walhi’s Forest and Plantation Campaign Manager Uli Arta Siagian said the organization’s analysis shows that Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra lost approximately 1.4 million hectares of forest between 2016 and 2024.

The three provinces, she added, host 631 business permits linked to extractive or land-intensive industries, including mining, large-scale palm oil plantations, forest utilization concessions (PBPH), and major hydropower projects such as the Batang Toru development.

“These companies operate across mining, monoculture plantations, PBPH concessions, and large-scale energy industries. The ecological conditions in these provinces have become extremely fragile,” Uli said.

She stressed that the scale of deforestation and land conversion has amplified the severity of disasters.

“Land-use change is the main cause. Rainfall, cyclones and other meteorological factors are only triggers. Our ecological system has already been pushed into a fragile state,” Uli said.