Home Affairs Minister Reveals Five Villages in Aceh and North Sumatra Completely Wiped Out by Floods

Home Affairs Minister (Mendagri) Tito Karnavian has stated that five villages have disappeared due to flash flood and landslide disasters in Sumatra. The five villages are located in Aceh and North Sumatra.

Tito said that villages declared completely lost due to the disaster will be removed from government administration. Residents from those villages will be relocated to new areas.

“Villages that have disappeared, they are completely gone. Automatically, if they cannot be rebuilt, their administrative status will be eliminated,” Tito told reporters in the Senayan area, South Jakarta, on Monday (23/3/2026).

He explained that the relocation of residents will involve local and central government. Local government will prepare the land, while the construction of housing will be handled by the central government through the Ministry of Housing and Settlement Areas (PKP).

“The people will be relocated. Local government prepares the land, the buildings are prepared by the Minister of PKP,” he said.

Tito detailed that the five lost villages are spread across two provinces. In Aceh, there are three villages, namely Pasir Village, Remukut Village, and Tinggi Village, located in Gayo Lues Regency.

Meanwhile, in North Sumatra, there are two villages, namely Garoga and Tandihat, located in South Tapanuli Regency. Tito stated that no villages were lost in West Sumatra.

Furthermore, the Head of the Sumatra Post-Disaster Recovery Task Force explained the difference from previous data that mentioned dozens of villages lost. He clarified that from that number, only five villages are truly completely lost, while the other 21 villages are classified as heavily damaged.

“From (the previous number), the five are truly completely lost. The rest are heavily impacted, meaning some areas remain,” Tito explained.

For villages completely lost, the government will remove the status of those areas from administration, including rearranging residents’ population documents. Residents will later be registered as residents in new areas, either in other villages or sub-districts.

“Including their ID cards must also be rearranged because they become residents in another place,” Tito said.

Tito added that the current handling process is ongoing at the regency level with assistance from the central government. The Ministry of Home Affairs has also assigned the Director General of Village Governance Development, La Ode Ahmad P. Bolombo, to oversee the process.

“The process is at the regency level, and I have assigned the Dirjen Pemdes to handle it,” he concluded.