The last update on IDPs’ situation in Nduga affirmed that according to solidarity groups, 400 IDPs have died between January 2019 and November 2020 in Jayawijaya alone due to diseases and other strains they face there. Jubi has reported that as many as 18 refugees from Nduga Regency, Papua in Jayawijaya Regency died in various refugee locations during the past month. “This has happened since 24 December, 2020 until now. Already 18 people died. Those are Nduga refugees in Jayawijaya, refugees in other areas we don’t know. Today two refugees are in critical condition”, said Raga Kogeya via a phone call to Jubi on Wednesday 20 January 2021. He said that sometimes two to three refugees die in a day. The age range of those who died was 18 to 50 years.
According to him, most of the refugees died because of illness. Some of them have fever, nose bleeds, convulsions, red, red skin, and other symptoms. Some were sick for two to three months, but they did not receive medical attention. “When they are sick, there is no medical treatment. We refugee volunteers just try to treat them as best we can”, he said.
Raga Kogeya said, sick refugees should receive medical attention or go to the hospital. However, they don’t access treatment because of limited costs. He said the hospital refused to handle the refugees for free, because the Nduga Regency Government had not collaborated with the Jayawijaya Regency Government. “Unlike the Lanny Jaya Regional Government which collaborates with the Jayawijaya Regional Government, so all the people who seek treatment there are served”, he said.
Nduga refugee volunteers in Jayawijaya recorded that around 400 refugees in various refugee locations there died, during the period from the end of 2018 to the end of 2020. Another volunteer for the Nduga refugees in Jayawijaya, Sipe Kelne, has yet to say this page, various factors cause hundreds of refugees to die. Among them, because of health problems, old age and other causes. “That number does not include Nduga refugees in other places (districts),” said Sipe Kelnea at the time. “The executive and legislative branches, everything is invisible. It’s all hiding. The regents in Papua, especially in the mountainous areas, have never been to the refugee camps”, he said.
Since the end of 2018, thousands of residents from 12 districts in Nduga have fled their villages due to armed conflict between security forces and the West Papua Liberation Army. Thousands of Nduga residents fled to various nearby districts that were considered safe, including Jayawijaya. Data released by Nduga volunteers in Jayawijaya towards the end of 2019, recorded that the number of refugees there reached eight thousand people.
