UNM Makassar Student Protest Turns Violent as Ojol Overrun Campus and Roads Blocked

Protests on Jalan AP Pettarani, Makassar, South Sulawesi (Sulsel), ended in violence tonight. A group of online motorcycle taxi riders (ojol) forcefully entered the Universitas Negeri Makassar (UNM) campus and searched for students who were protesting after one of their colleagues’ motorcycles was damaged.

According to detikSulsel, on Thursday (5 March), the clashes began around 7.30 pm WITA. The demonstrators, who had previously cleared the road and gathered on Jalan Pendidikan, engaged in stone-throwing with road users and several men dressed as ojol.

The crowd also fired firecrackers repeatedly from the darkness on Jalan Pendidikan. Meanwhile, the riders and ojol on Jalan AP Pettarani threw back.

As of 7.50 pm WITA, the clashes were still ongoing at the site. Traffic was completely blocked.

Head of UNM Security Unit (UPT Keamanan UNM), Dahlan, said the friction between students and ojol began after the crowd dispersed around 7.00 pm WITA on Thursday (5/3/2026). The crowd gathered on Jalan Pendidikan Raya damaged the motorcycle of one ojol driver.

“The chronology is that there was an ojol rider who was pelted by protesters on Jalan Pendidikan Raya. He (the crowd) damaged his motorcycle; he did not accept it, so they destroyed it, even throwing a UNM videotron (owned by UNM),” Dahlan told detikSulsel at the scene on Thursday (5/3).

The ojol driver did not accept this, and a clash ensued. The crowd of ojol that gathered then began attacking from Jalan AP Pettarani.

Dahlan said this crowd appeared on the road after the BEM UNM (UNM Student Executive Board) had dispersed in the afternoon. They continued to block the road into the night.

Dahlan said the campus security team was overwhelmed trying to repel the crowd after the fence around the Menara Pinisi UNM was breached. The ojol crowd then forced their way in looking for students with no police protection.

Read more about this news here and here.

(wnv/eva)