TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A screenshot of a news article titled “President Prabowo Declares Floods in Aceh and Sumatra a National Disaster” circulated on an Instagram account [archive] on December 3, 2025.
The image includes media attribution from Tribun Network and Serambinews.com. The uploader added a narrative stating that their efforts to viralize this issue have borne fruit. The text in the content urges netizens to continue monitoring news about their fellow citizens in Central Aceh.
So, is it true that Prabowo has declared the disaster in Sumatra a national disaster?
FACT CHECK
Tempo verified this content using Google image search and compared it with reliable sources. Our findings confirm that the screenshot is edited. As of the publication of this article on December 5, 2025, the government has not declared the flooding in Sumatra a national disaster.
The content manipulates the title of a Serambinews.com article entitled “Aceh-West Sumatra Surrenders: His Excellency President Prabowo, Declare the Sumatra Floods a National Disaster.” The article, written by Agus Ramadhan, was uploaded on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.
The original article contains a statement from the regional head of Aceh requesting that President Prabowo elevate the status of the Sumatra floods to a national disaster.
Quoted from Serambinews.com, Nagan Raya Regent Teuku Raja Keumangan stated his inability to handle the floods and landslides in his region. He signed a letter of inability due to limited funds to deal with the floods in Aceh.
“We hope that His Excellency President Prabowo will immediately declare Aceh a national disaster,” said Teuku in a dialogue on Kompas TV's Sapa Indonesia Pagi program on Tuesday, December 2, 2025.
West Sumatra Governor Mahyeldi Ansharullah also expressed a similar sentiment. He requested that the central government declare a national disaster emergency in relation to the floods and landslides that occurred in Sumatra.
This is because, he said, the floods and landslides that have occurred since last week have caused widespread damage to infrastructure and residential areas.
The Government Does Not Declare a National Disaster
Pressure on the central government to declare the Sumatra floods a national disaster continues to mount. The Aceh civil society coalition considers this step crucial because the local government is no longer able to handle the impact of floods and landslides.
They highlight the poor fiscal condition of the region, especially in Aceh, which makes sustainable disaster management impossible.
However, Prabowo Subianto considers the regional disaster emergency status sufficient to handle the crisis in Sumatra.
“We are monitoring the situation continuously. I think the current conditions are sufficient,” said Prabowo while visiting Central Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra, on Monday, December 1, 2025.
The Head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Lieutenant General TNI Suharyanto, stated that the disasters in Aceh, North Sumatra, and West Sumatra are still categorized at the provincial level.
According to him, so far the government has only designated two events as national disasters, namely the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2004 Aceh tsunami. Other major disasters such as the earthquake and tsunami in Central Sulawesi, the earthquake in West Nusa Tenggara, and Cianjur did not receive the same status.
BNPB data as of Thursday, December 4, 2025, recorded that the death toll from the Sumatra disaster reached 836 people. A total of 518 people were declared missing and 2,700 others were injured.
CONCLUSION
Based on the results of fact-checking, the Tempo Fact-Checking Team concluded that Prabowo's claim that he had declared the Sumatra disaster a national disaster was false.
TEMPO FACT CHECK TEAM
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