Prabowo Has Received Report on Sulawesi-Maluku Earthquake, Immediately Orders Evacuation

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto received a report regarding the earthquake in North Sulawesi (Sulut) and North Maluku (Malut) on Thursday morning (2/4/2026) and immediately ordered evacuations as quickly as possible.

“The President received the report from the BNPB Head early this morning regarding the incident in North Sulawesi and North Maluku provinces, particularly in Bitung City and Ternate City as well as Batang Dua Island,” said Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya on Thursday.

“And today, the BNPB Head arrived in North Sulawesi and other teams arrived in North Maluku,” he added.

Subsequently, BNPB Head Suharyanto has urged residents not to resume activities in affected buildings.

“We have contacted North Maluku Governor Sherly and North Sulawesi Governor Yulius,” said Teddy.

Previously reported, a tectonic earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 rocked the sea area southeast of Bitung City, North Sulawesi, on Thursday (2/4) at 05:48 WIB.

“The shaking was felt very strongly for 10 to 20 seconds in Bitung City and surrounding areas, and also strongly felt in Ternate City, North Maluku Province, causing panic among residents who fled their homes,” stated Abdul in his official remarks on Thursday (2/4/2026).

Two aftershocks were recorded, with magnitudes of 5.5 at 06:07 WIB and 5.2 at 06:12 WIB.

“Based on monitoring from the early warning system, tsunami waves with relatively small heights have been detected, namely around 0.3 metres in the West Halmahera area at 06:08 WIB and 0.2 metres in Bitung at 06:15 WIB,” said Abdul.

Currently, BMKG has lifted the tsunami early warning in North Sulawesi and North Maluku areas.