Fact check: Prabowo says many disaster-hit Sumatra areas have fully recovered

Verdict: Partly true. The government's own task force says most affected districts in the three provinces are back to normal, which supports part of the president's statement. But in Aceh, the hardest-hit province, seven of 18 affected districts still need special handling, and official figures show housing, river and farmland repairs there are far more than "a few percent" from complete.

The claim

President Prabowo Subianto spoke on Wednesday 11 November 2026 while inaugurating the Baitul A'la Jade Mosque in Nagan Raya, Aceh. "Alhamdulillah, within a few months, conditions in Aceh, North Sumatra and West Sumatra, many areas have already recovered 100 percent, some still have a few percent left," he said, according to ANTARA. CNN Indonesia reported the same words.

The floods and landslides struck the three provinces in late November 2025. Recovery is run by a task force for accelerated rehabilitation and reconstruction (Satgas PRR) chaired by Home Affairs Minister Tito Karnavian.

What the record shows

1. Most districts are classed as normal, but not in Aceh. Satgas PRR data as of 9 November show 43 of 53 affected regencies and cities, about 82 percent, declared normal and 10 still needing special attention, CNN Indonesia reported. West Sumatra had 15 of 16 back to normal and North Sumatra 17 of 19. Aceh had only 11 of 18. The seven still needing special handling are Bireuen, East Aceh, Central Aceh, North Aceh, Gayo Lues, Aceh Tamiang and Pidie Jaya.

2. Temporary shelters are almost done; permanent homes have barely started. Satgas PRR data dated 31 October show 18,916 of 18,949 planned temporary housing units (huntara) in Aceh completed, or 99 percent, Waspada Aceh reported. For permanent housing (huntap), 1,473 of 49,184 planned units were finished, about 3 percent. Of the housing ministry's 20,647 planned units, 6,220 were still in tender and 14,427 are budgeted for 2027.

3. A third of affected rivers in Aceh have not been touched. Tito told reporters on 9 November that 31 rivers in Aceh were affected. Fifteen had been normalised, six were in progress and 10 had not been handled, ANTARA reported. He counted 18 repeat floods in Aceh between April and October 2026.

4. About a quarter of damaged farmland in Aceh is still out of use. Tito said on 9 November that 76 percent of 31,464 hectares of affected farmland in Aceh, more than 23,000 hectares, had been restored, ANTARA reported. Heavily damaged land, in places under two metres of mud and debris, still needs work. Aceh also had 30,417 hectares of fish ponds and cages affected. By comparison, North Sumatra had restored more than 98 percent of its farmland and West Sumatra all of it.

5. The scale of the damage. Disaster data as of 9 November recorded 1,207 people dead, 138 missing and 184,149 houses damaged, 45,222 of them heavily, across 53 regencies and cities, CNN Indonesia reported.

6. Civil society groups describe unfinished work on the ground. At a news conference on 13 November, the director of YLBHI-LBH Banda Aceh, Aulianda Wafisa, said some damaged houses had not been rebuilt, timber still clogged rivers and fields, and some bridges and roads were unrepaired, Seputar Aceh reported. The women's group Flower Aceh said the same day that some families had moved back into damaged homes because shelters were far from their farms and jobs, AcehToday reported. These are the groups' own accounts.

The government's side

Prabowo did not say every area had recovered. He said some still had work left, and on the same visit he said he had ordered Public Works Minister Dody Hanggodo to repair irrigation in Nagan Raya. Tito said on 9 November that repeat floods had undone repaired roads and bridges and that river works tens of kilometres long "cannot be done in a short time". Dody said on 7 November that his ministry was speeding up river normalisation and embankment repairs in Southeast Aceh, Gayo Lues, North Aceh, Nagan Raya and Pidie Jaya, ANTARA reported. Tito said permanent homes take longer because sites must be studied so the houses are safe, and the government hopes to speed them up in 2027.

Why the verdict is partly true

The task force's figure of 43 normal districts out of 53 backs the statement that "many areas" have recovered. The second half of the sentence, that the rest have only "a few percent left", does not match the figures for Aceh: 3 percent of permanent homes built, 10 of 31 rivers untouched and about a quarter of farmland still out of use, nearly a year after the disaster.

What we do not know

• The reports we read do not explain what criteria the task force uses to declare a district "normal".
• Prabowo did not say which areas he counted as 100 percent recovered.
• We found no housing figures for Aceh newer than 31 October.