Sigli – Some 25,000 people have fled their homes in Pidie district up to Sunday, 4 July and sub-district Tangse is almost entirely deserted. Thousands more villagers have fled a number of villages in sub-distrct Bandar Baru because they no longer feel safe in their homes.

The people fleeing from villages in Tangse are staying in two mosques in sub-distrct Mutiara while those fleeing from Bandar Baru are staying in a third mosque. Others are staying with relatives.

An estimated 15,000 people are staying in Abu Beureuh Mosque and Meunasah BAro Barat Jaman Beureunuen while 7,000 are staying in Teupin Raya Mosque.

A coordinator handling the influx of refugees told Serambi that many people were also staying in neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the mosques because the mosques were unable to take them all in.

One villager who is among another three thousand refugees from six villages in Bandar Baru told the newspaper that they had fled their villages after security forces entered their villages.

Facilities for the refugees are very inadqaute, in particular there is a lack of clean water for drinking and washing.

One observer, Tgk Razali said that if the exodus continued, Tangse sub-distrct would be totally deserted in two days time. There were people left in only four of the 27 villages in the sub-district, he said.

The refugees had fled, leaving behind unattended their cattle and sheep, as well as rice-fields and coffee bushes ready for harvesting. If all this goes to waste, the villagers will sustain losses of hundreds of millions of rupiah, destroying their livelihoods, he said.