24 Victims of Drowning in Uwe River Have Been Evacuated by Basarnas Wamena

Jayawijaya - The Jayawijaya Regional Police (Polres) in the Papua Mountains recorded 24 victims of drowning in the Uwe Wamena River who have been evacuated.

A total of 24 victims who were successfully evacuated by the joint team from the Jayawijaya Police, Kodim 1702/Jayawijaya and Wamena Basarnas Post were victims of the broken Wouma suspension bridge, which triggered the inter-tribal war in the capital of Jayawijaya Regency.

The Jayawijaya Police Chief AKBP Anak Agung Made Satriya Bimantara in Wamena, Sunday, said that search efforts had been carried out with a joint team from Kodim 1702/Jayawijaya and Wamena Basarnas Post until now.

"Our search results with the joint team since the collapse of the Wouma suspension bridge on the first day to the present have found approximately 24 victims to date (Sunday)," he said.

According to him, the focus of the joint team is to search for the victims of the collapse of the Wouma suspension bridge since May 7, 2026 afternoon until now to calm the unrest.

"Honestly, until this moment we have not received accurate data on how many victims fell as a result of the collapse of the Wouma suspension bridge. Information on falling victims from the Wouma suspension bridge says 7, 20, 33 and 38 are still confusing," he said.

He explained that there was even information from the community saying that the victim on behalf of the fulan had died, it turned out that after checking the victim was still alive.

"However, we continue to make search efforts so that we can lower the tension (emotions) from the victim's family. We did the search for up to eight days before the intertribal war in Wamena," he said.

He added that the three points that were the focus of the search were from the broken suspension bridge to the Wouma Bridge, the estuary area or behind Wamena Airport and Yikuba.

"The total number of bodies or victims who have been found so far is 24 people. And we continue to search together with a joint team from the military and the Basarnas," he said.