Floods, landslides kill 31 in Indonesia's North Sumatra

A week of relentless rainfall has unleashed a series of floods and landslides across Indonesia's North Sumatra province, killing at least 31 people and prompting local officials to seek an emergency disaster declaration.

Tuahta Ramajaya Saragih, head of North Sumatra's Disaster Management Agency, said it had submitted a request to declare a disaster emergency status to the provincial governor.

The proposed status, extending through December, would accelerate aid distribution and mobilise national resources to assist thousands of displaced residents.

"High-intensity rainfall continues to batter the region, and we expect the risk of further disasters to remain elevated until at least early December," Saragih said.

The devastation has spanned multiple districts, from Medan to rural areas like Sibolangit and Sayur Matinggi, where communities remain cut off by landslides that have buried roads under debris, the disaster agency said.

Rescue workers are navigating treacherous conditions to clear access routes and search for missing persons, while temporary shelters strain to accommodate the displaced, it said.

Indonesia faces an annual monsoon season that often brings torrential rains and severe flooding, particularly in low-lying and densely populated regions like North Sumatra.

However, experts warn that deforestation and poorly planned urbanisation have exacerbated the severity of these events, reducing the landscape's ability to absorb excess water and increasing vulnerability to landslides.

In the past week, heavy rains have caused rivers to overflow, sweeping away homes, farmland, and infrastructure in North Sumatra, according to the disaster agency.