Indonesia will consider foreign assistance to fight forest and peatland wildfires that officials describe as the country's most intense since 2015, Reuters reported on October 15 from Jakarta.
President Prabowo Subianto has named a new head of the disaster agency BNPB, army general Kristomei Sianturi, as fires in Kalimantan and Sumatra driven by an El Nino-linked drought send haze across neighbouring countries.
The smoke has produced hazardous air-quality readings, respiratory illness, protests and school closures in affected areas at home and abroad. Indonesian officials have blamed peatland degradation for the scale of the blazes and vowed restoration work alongside the firefighting effort.
Whether Jakarta formally requests or accepts foreign firefighting help is now one of the first decisions facing the new disaster chief, as crews race to contain hotspots before the dry conditions worsen.
