Tito’s Task Force Targets Ending Tent Living for Sumatra Disaster Evacuees Ahead of Eid al-Fitr

KOMPAS.com – The Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri), who also serves as Chair of the Satuan Tugas (Satgas) Percepatan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (PRR) Pascabencana Sumatera, Muhammad Tito Karnavian, has targeted Sumatra disaster evacuees to obtain more decent housing. He said evacuees who are still living in tents can soon be moved to temporary housing (huntara) or through the Housing Waiting Fund scheme (DTH). This effort is intended so that the evacuees have a more decent housing solution before Eid al-Fitr 1447 AH (2026 CE). During a ministerial-level Coordination Meeting on Accelerating the Handling of Post-Disaster Evacuees in Sumatra, held in hybrid format from the Ministry of Home Affairs headquarters in Jakarta on Thursday, 5 March 2026, Tito stated: “I deliberately invited those involved with evacuation matters, especially those still in tents, because we hope before Lebaran there will be no one left in tents.” He said the decline in the number of evacuees living in tents is one of the indicators of recovery. “If there are still in tents, this is already in the third month since the end of November; it is not good for them to still be in tents,” Tito added. BNPB data show that the number of evacuees in the three affected provinces has continued to decline. In West Sumatra, for example, there are no longer any evacuees living in emergency tents. Meanwhile, in Aceh, evacuees are still scattered across several areas, including Aceh Utara, Aceh Tamiang, Aceh Timur, Aceh Tengah, Bireuen, Nagan Raya, and Gayo Lues. “The essence is that we see there are still those in tents and we need to resolve this. We need to find solutions so that they are not in tents,” Tito said. He also emphasised the importance of accelerating the construction of huntara and the distribution of DTH so that the community can immediately occupy more decent housing. According to Tito, coordination between ministries/agencies and local governments is the key to speeding up the resolution of housing for disaster-affected communities. For information, the coordination meeting was attended online by several stakeholders, including Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo and BNPB Head Suharyanto.