Interim President: Indonesian drone attacks killing West Papuan women and children
June 25, 2026
Indonesia is again using drones to kill innocent West Papuan women and children.
On 18 June 2026, two Papuan women, Otovina Hogajau and Aliana Pogau, were seriously injured by an Indonesian drone strike in Danggoa Village, Intan Jaya Regency. One later died from her wounds. These were village women, returning from collecting sweet potatoes in their gardens, when an unmanned drone dropped a bomb on them. Another three thousand Papuans were forced from their homes by the attack, adding to the 122,000 civilians currently displaced by Indonesian military operations.
Victim in Danggoa village (warning: graphic images)
Only days after the Danggoa attack, another bomb was dropped from a drone flying over Balamai Village, Hitadipa, Intan Jaya Regency – the epicentre of the Wabu Block gold mine. Mr Makelon Majau was severely injured by shrapnel from the explosion, while many Balamai residents fled into the forest.
Bomb attacks from unmanned vehicles have become one of the main tactics of the Indonesian occupation army in recent years. Drones were used in a previous attack on Danggoa Village in May; in the recent murder of Luter Nabalau and 18-year-old Penti Weya in consecutive attacks; the attack on the headquarters of the KNPB; the bombing of the Kembru refugee camp in February; the fatal attack in Dekai, Yahukimo, in November 2025; last year’s killing of TPNPB commander Lamek Taplo; and in 2021, the massacres in Kiwirok that left hundreds of Papuans dead.
In the wars taking place in Europe and the Middle East, both sides use drones. In West Papua, Indonesia is using drones to massacre defenceless women and children, many of whom will not understand the technology being used to kill them. We are David versus Goliath, victims of the most unequal war in the world.
Where is Pacific leadership, as Indonesia murders your West Papuan kin? On behalf of the ULMWP and people of West Papua, I repeat my call for Indonesia’s immediate expulsion from PIF and the MSG. I call on President Prabowo to withdraw his military from West Papua, in keeping with his hollow promise of amnesty for Papuan fighters. Prabowo must also open West Papua to international journalists and facilitate the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit West Papua, in keeping with the demand of 110 UN member states.
Lastly, I call for the immediate cessation of arms sales to Indonesia. Any country selling Indonesia bombs or unmanned vehicles is directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of indigenous West Papuans.
Thank you to Labour MPs Alex Sobel and Anneliese Dodds for their powerful statements addressing ecocide and drone warfare in West Papua in the UK Parliament this week. The ULMWP encourages all Parliamentarians around the world to raise this issue. The people of West Papua are voiceless: we need our friends to speak for us.
Benny Wenda
Interim President
ULMWP
