Jakarta – Amnesty International has urged the government to show support for Aceh residents after they rescued dozens of Rohingya refugees in Northern Aceh waters. Amnesty called this event "a victory for humanitarian solidarity" and demanded that the Indonesian authorities ensure immediate protection for the refugees.

Rebecca Ratcliffe and Febriana Firdaus – On Thursday afternoon, residents of Aceh, Indonesia, waded back and forth in water helping Rohingya refugees clamber to safety. Exhausted children were passed between rescuers.

Jakarta – Amnesty International has called on Indonesian authorities to ensure immediate protection for dozens of Rohingya refugees, who were rescued by local fishermen after they became stranded in the waters off North Aceh on Wednesday.

Apriza Pinandita, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has said that it has provided emergency assistance to dozens of Rohingya refugees who found themselves stranded in northern Aceh waters.

The 94 refugees, consisting of 49 women, 15 men and 30 children, were rescued by local fishermen on Wednesday.

Jakarta – A video showing a woman being harassed by men after she was allegedly caught stealing at Ulee Gle market in Bandar Dua district, Pidie Jaya regency, Aceh, went viral on Wednesday.

Antara, Jakarta – Land and forest fires in Peunaga Cut Ujong Village, West Aceh, burned 2.1 acres of peatland area in the past week due to hot weather, with the situation remaining unchanged by Friday, June 12 evening.

Aceh Besar (AFP) – Two Indonesians caught having pre-marital sex were flogged a hundred times each on Friday (June 5) in conservative Aceh province with a fraction of the usual crowd watching, due in part to coronavirus fears.Aceh is the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia to impose Islamic law, which allows whipping for charges including gambling, adultery, drinking alcohol,

Junaidi Hanafiah, Banda Aceh, Indonesia – Wildlife poaching is on the rise in a key Sumatran habitat that's home to some of the rarest species on Earth. But hunters in the Leuser Ecosystem appear to be targeting animals for food, rather than the area's prized tigers, rhinos or orangutans, according to conservationists.

Bradford Betz – Indonesian authorities in the country's ultra-conservative Aceh province publicly flogged six people Tuesday for breaking Islamic law – despite a government ban on mass gatherings amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report.

Jakarta – The Aceh Ulema Council (MPU) has announced that it will allow people to perform daily mass prayers and tarawih (Ramadan night prayers) during the upcoming holy month despite the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

Jakarta – The Public Works and Housing Ministry handed over 50 homes measuring 28 square meters to fisherfolk living in Linggi village, East Simeulue district, Simeulue regency, Aceh, on Thursday.

Such assistance was expected to help improve the welfare of fisherfolk in the village, as they now had a proper place to live.

Aceh – Units from the Aceh Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) and the Wilayatul Hisbah Islamic police (WH) conducted checks on female drivers wearing tight clothing and men wearing short trousers.

The checks netted scores of violators with one of the women wearing a flannel shirt and long trousers.

Marchio Irfan Gorbiano, Jakarta – Former self-styled prime minister of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Malik Mahmud al-Haytar, demanded that the government follow up on various points of the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that ended three decades of armed conflict in Aceh.

Banda Aceh – Banda Aceh Mayor Aminullah Usman has banned residents from celebrating Valentine's Day or the day of love on February 14.

Jakarta – The city administration of Banda Aceh in the conservative province of Aceh has barred residents from celebrating Valentine's Day, which falls on Feb. 14, on the grounds that it goes against Islamic teachings.

Jakarta – Indonesia's westernmost province, Aceh, plans to host the West Coast Aceh 250K ultramarathon from April 4 to 6 in an attempt to boost a positive public image.

Aceh Besar – The Greater Aceh regency government in Aceh province has again banned people from celebrating Valentine's Day because it is deemed to conflict with Syariat Islam (Islamic law).

Haeril Halim, Banda Aceh – Agus plunges a wooden paddle into his coffee and marijuana-filled wok, taking care to roast just the right mix of ingredients – and stay one step ahead of police in Indonesia's Aceh province.

His contraband brew is a hit with locals and buyers in other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago, who pay 1.0 million rupiah ($75) for a kilo of it.

Haeril Halim, Banda Aceh – The masked woman nervously approaches her target, shuffles into position and then unleashes a flurry of lashes – proving herself as the newest member of the first female flogging squad in Indonesia's Aceh province.

The new recruit initially needed some coaxing to punish the offender – an unmarried woman caught in a hotel room with a man.

Achmad Nasrudin Yahya, Jakarta – Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR) Chairperson Afridal Darmi says that responsibility for resolving human rights (HAM) violations during the armed conflict in Aceh is a national issue.

Masriadi, Lhokseumawe – Lhokseumawe Mayor Suaidi Yahyais has asked to all cafe, restaurant, hotel and internet cafe owners in the city to limit working hours for women employees to 11 o'clock at night.

Junaidi Hanafiah, Rahmadi Rahmad, East Lampung, Indonesia – The government of the Indonesian province of Aceh, notorious for public canings carried out under sharia law, plans to put that same strict Islamic jurisprudence to work protecting what's thought to be the last viable population of wild Sumatran rhinos on Earth.

Agus Setyadi, Banda Aceh – Aceh's religious leaders (ulama) believe that there is no need to build cinemas in Tanah Rencong – as Aceh is known – and that cinemas are not something which have any benefit.

Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck near Sinabang in Aceh on Tuesday afternoon, causing light damage. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency, or BMKG, did not issue a tsunami warning.

Earlier, the agency said the earthquake had a magnitude of 6.4 but soon revised it to 6.1.

Antara, Jakarta – Dozens of protesters from multiple communities in Aceh Province took to the streets today, December 24, voicing support for Uighur Muslims reportedly oppressed in their state, China.

The rally was centered in Simpang Lima Roundabout, Banda Aceh. In addition to Muslims, Chinese Indonesians also joined the mass protest.

There are to be no fireworks or – heaven forbid – alcohol and debauchery on New Year's Eve in two major Aceh cities, which have officially banned all celebrations welcoming the year 2020.

Heru Asprihanto, Kanupriya Kapoor, Banda Aceh, Indonesia/New York – When 12-meter (39 ft) waves slammed into Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island on Boxing Day in 2004, Arif Munandar lost his wife, three sons, and 20 other members of his family as much of the city was obliterated.

Jakarta – Sabang City on Weh Island in Aceh – the only region in Muslim-majority Indonesia that has implemented Sharia law – has banned its local residents from celebrating the new year in a circulating letter issued by the city administration.

The ban was signed by local leaders at the Regional Leadership Communication Forum (Forkopimda), Sabang Mayor Nazaruddin said.

A public caning carried out today in Banda Aceh, the capital city of Aceh province, became the first in the city to feature a woman handling the cane.

Dubbed algojo, which means "executioner" in Indonesian, the unidentified woman was, like her male counterparts before her, shrouded from head to toe in dark cloth, safe for a small slit that leaves her eyes exposed.

Jakarta – In two separate cases, a woman and a man in Aceh passed out on Thursday after being publicly caned as a punishment for violating the province's Qanun Jinayat (Islamic criminal code).

In East Aceh regency, a 22-year-old man found guilty of extramarital sex was beaten unconscious after a sharia officer punished him with 100 strokes in a flogging.

An Indonesian man who fainted as he was being whipped for pre-marital sex Thursday was revived to receive the rest of his punishment before being rushed to hospital.

Officials in the conservative Indonesian province of Aceh are outraged over a brazen protest against their religious ideals by a man, who appears to be a foreigner, who snuck in his message – and more – on Google Street View.

An Indonesian man working for an organisation that helped draft strict religious laws has been publicly whipped himself after he was caught having an affair with a married woman.

Flogging is a common punishment for a range of offences in the deeply conservative Aceh region on Sumatra island, including adultery, drinking alcohol, and having gay or premarital sex.

Jakarta – A member of the Aceh Ulema Council (MPU), which oversees the implementation of sharia in the province, was publicly caned in Banda Aceh after he was caught alone with a woman who was not his wife.

Floods affected Buket Meugajah and Blang Luah Villages in East Woyla Sub-district, Cot Rambong and Napai Villages in West Woyla Sub-district, and Lueng Bulo

Corazon Miller – Two men accused of gambling are the latest to receive a public whipping in the capital of Indonesia's Aceh, where people are commonly flogged for a range of offences including drinking alcohol, sex before marriage and homosexuality.

Jakarta – Poachers who threaten endangered orangutans, tigers and other wildlife could receive up to 100 lashes under new rules in Indonesia's Aceh province, which usually reserves whipping for morality crimes under Islamic law.

Jakarta (Bisnis) – The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated haze caused by land and forest fires in several provinces of Sumatra has shrouded Aceh province, including Banda Aceh and its vicinity.

Aceh, the only province in Indonesia with special autonomy to enact sharia law, is often criticized by human rights activists for publicly caning those found guilty of morality-based "crimes" such as adultery and homosexual relations.

Dyaning Pangestika, Jakarta – A group that calls itself Victims of the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law Community (PAKU ITE) has urged the Aceh Police to stop the investigation into Saiful Mahdi, a lecturer from Syiah Kuala University, who is a suspect in a defamation case.

Jakarta (Antara) – A flash flood triggered by heavy rains inundated and damaged tens of houses in South Aceh district Friday night. By Saturday evening, the flood had reportedly damaged tens of houses and affected 1,417 residents.

Jakarta – The West Aceh regency administration has declared an emergency status in response to the severe haze that has blanketed the region from forest and land fires that have burned since July.

Indonesian journalist Asnawi Luwi's house was burned down, followed by an arson attack at the office of the Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) two days later in what is believed to be a related incident.

In mid-July, the male head of a pesantren (Islamic boarding school) in the ultraconservative province of Aceh, as well as one of the school's male teachers, were arrested by police for allegedly sexually assaulting 15 of the school's male students.

Lhokseumawe – Three people were publicly whipped 100 times each in Indonesia's deeply conservative Aceh province on Wednesday (Jul 31), with one woman pleading for the masked sharia officer to stop because she could not bear the pain.

One woman begged for mercy and another sobbed uncontrollably as Indonesia's Aceh province flogged nearly a dozen people Thursday, including a Buddhist man, charged with breaking local Islamic law.

Galuh Wandita – An older woman spoke haltingly into a microphone, her hands trembling from the memory: "They beat my whole body, my eyes and hands were tied. They hit me with a big plank of wood. There were four of them. They hit me on the head, and whipped me with a belt."

Saiful Bahri I, Lhokseumawe – Female religious pupils (santriwati) from the An Islamic boarding school (pesantren) in Lhokseumawe, northern Aceh, are now required to wear the cadar (full length Islamic veil) in and around their new pesantren.

Ana Salva – Fajran Zain still remembers the days when young lovers from the province of Aceh, in Indonesia, could sit to enjoy the sunset together without having to worry about the religious police.

Jakarta – Acting Aceh governor Nova Iriansyah has lashed out at the notion that oil palm plantations in the province contributed to environmental degradation, saying it was impossible for Acehnese farmers to harm the environment.