PIDIE/JAKARTA: The death toll from devastating floods and landslides in Southeast Asia climbed past 400 on Saturday as clean-up and search-and-rescue operations got underway in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Heavy monsoon rain overwhelmed swaths of the three countries this week and left thousands stranded, many on rooftops awaiting rescue.

Rescuers in Indonesia were struggling to reach the worst-affected areas of Sumatra island, where more than 270 people were still missing.

Flooding and landslides in Indonesia have killed more than 300 people, according to the latest figures from the disaster authority on Saturday.

Of those, 166 were in North Sumatra province, 90 were in West Sumatra, and 47 were in Aceh.

Jakarta orders cloud seeding operation to contain rainfall; many regions remain inaccessible to rescue and relief agencies

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, although access to many parts of those three provinces remains cut off, National Disaster Agency head Suharyanto said.

He told a news conference that a cloud seeding operation had begun in West Sumatra to reduce the rainfall, most of which had already subsided by Saturday.

Novia, a resident of Pidie in Aceh, said the water in his house had receded, “but the entire place is covered in mud”.

“Some of the items in the house are damaged or have fallen, and we haven’t been able to clean them yet.

“We, the community, are working together to clean up the mud,” the 30-year-old told said.

Firda Yusra said he left his home with his wife and child to take shelter in a nearby mosque with around a thousand others.

“Here, we eat whatever is available,” he said.

The clean-up

The death toll from floods and landslides following cyclonic rains in the Indonesian island of Sumatra has risen to 303, the head of the country’s disaster mitigation agency said on Saturday, up from a previous figure of 174 dead.

Large parts of Indonesia, Mala­ysia, and Thailand have been stricken by cyclone-fuelled torrential rain for a week, with a rare tropical storm forming in the Malacca Strait. At least 279 people are still missing, even as about 80,000 people have been evacuated and hundreds are still stranded in three provinces across Sumatra island, Indonesia’s westernmost area, head of the agency Suharyanto, told journalists.

Published in Dawn, November 30th, 2025