Mamuju Earthquake Refugees Return Home From Refugees

MAMUJU- Most of the refugees from the 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Mamuju Regency, West Sulawesi (Sulbar) have returned home.

"Some of the residents have returned to their homes and set up emergency tents in their respective homes according to the government's advice," said Farida, one of the displaced residents around the Manakarra Stadium area in Mamuju as reported by Antara, Friday, June 10.

He said that some of the earthquake refugees chose to return home, because they thought that the aftershock situation was safe.

Meanwhile, some other refugees admitted that even though they returned home during the day, they would return home at night because they were still traumatized by the earthquake on January 15, 2021.

"The earthquake incident a year ago on January 15, 2021 in Mamuju, occurred at night, so we chose to return to evacuate at night to emergency tents to avoid what could happen," said Amrin, another resident.

Meanwhile, the Mamuju Regency Government has established an emergency response status from 8 June 2022 to 14 June 2022.

The government in Mamuju has also taken steps to mitigate the impact of the earthquake, by collecting data on the impact of the earthquake, including injured victims, damaged houses and meeting the needs of refugees who are still living in emergency tents.

Mamuju Regent Sutinah Suhardi said the earthquake in his area had an impact on a number of sub-districts, including Tapalang District, West Tapalang District, Mamuju District, Simboro District and Kalukku District, which disrupted the function of public services.

Head of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Mamuju Regency, Taslim Sukirno, stated that 75 houses were damaged by the earthquake in Mamuju.

"The information on damaged houses that were recorded as a result of the earthquake was 75 units, and the data is still temporary," he said.

Taslim said the Mamuju BPBD was still collecting data on houses damaged by the earthquake in a number of sub-districts.

He said the number of refugees due to the Mamuju earthquake was 7,670 people.

The refugees are located at a number of evacuation points including Manakarra Stadium, West Sulawesi TVRI Office, Mamuju Regent's Office, Mamuju City Line Two and a number of points in West Tappalang District.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) released that the Mamuju earthquake point was located at sea at a distance of 26 kilometers from Mamuju City at a depth of 10 kilometers, the epicenter of the earthquake was at coordinates 2.77 south latitude and 118.56 east longitude.