Insurgent ambush in Indonesia’s restive Papua area kills a development employee and injures 3 others

JAYAPURA, Indonesia — Rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province killed a development employee and critically injured three others in an assault at a development web site, police stated Friday.

Nineteen different employees had been unhurt “however skilled trauma” from the assault, which occurred on Thursday, in line with an announcement from Papua police spokesperson Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo.

The 23-member development crew was resting of their tents in Eromaga village in Puncak district when 9 members of a insurgent group attacked them with sharp weapons together with arrows.

Safety officers rushed to the scene after listening to concerning the assault, however the rebels escaped earlier than they arrived.

Police and navy officers had been securing the world to stop additional assaults. They transferred the physique and the wounded employees to a hospital in one other district.

Safety forces had been working to trace down the attackers, Prabowo stated.

Papua, a former Dutch colony within the western a part of New Guinea, is ethnically and culturally distinct from a lot of Indonesia. Conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian safety forces are frequent.

Papua was integrated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored poll that was broadly seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered within the area, which is split into two provinces, Papua and West Papua.

Assaults have spiked up to now yr, with dozens of rebels, safety forces and civilians killed.

Seven individuals had been killed on Monday after insurgent gunmen attacked dozens of gold-mine employees in Yakuhimo district.

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Related Press author Edna Tarigan in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.