PENANGGAL: Indonesian Muslims gathered for Friday prayers in an evacuation center on the slopes of Mount Semeru, where thousands of people remain in limbo after a series of eruptions in the past week by the volcano left thousands homeless.
The 3,676-meter (12,060 foot) volcano erupted spectacularly on Saturday, sending a towering cloud of ash into the sky and dangerous pyroclastic flows into villages below.
In the Penanggal evacuation center, Abdul Ghofar joined several hundred others displaced by the disaster for Friday prayers in a makeshift mosque set up using a tent in a field.
“I usually pray at my village ... I can’t believe this is what has happened to me,” said Ghofar, 47, who recounted hearing a loud boom on the day of the eruption before a black cloud of ash turned everything dark in his village of Curah Kobokan.
Ghofar, who was working as a food vendor, thought he and his mother might die, but then some light appeared in the sky and they managed to flee without any possessions.
He said his cousin, who worked as a sand miner near the volcano, was still missing and he was now waiting to be relocated.
At least 43 people have died and hundreds have been injured since the eruption, while more than 6,000 people were evacuated, with many now uncertain whether they will ever be able to live in the area again.
In a field kitchen set up at the evacuation center, volunteers chopped vegetables and cooked rice and eggs, to place in around 2,000 food parcels a day for the people sheltering in the area.
Sukur, 70, who uses one name, was among a number of the displaced sheltering in a tent at the center this week.
“In this situation we feel happy as well as sad. Happy because we are gathered with many people, but sad because we remember now we don’t have a house,” said Sukur, who despite the difficult conditions was dressed immaculately in a blue batik shirt and a traditional Indonesian peci hat.
Indonesian Muslims hold Friday prayers in shadow of deadly volcano
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Indonesian Muslims hold Friday prayers in shadow of deadly volcano
- At least 43 people have died and hundreds have been injured since the eruption
Over 3,000 migrants died in 2025 trying to reach Spain: aid group
- More than 3,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain this year, a report released by a Spanish migration rights group said on Monday
MADRID: More than 3,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain this year, a report released by a Spanish migration rights group said on Monday, a sharp decline from 2024 as the number of attempted crossings fell.
Caminando Fronteras (Walking Borders) said most of the 3,090 deaths recorded until December 15 took place on the Atlantic migration route from Africa to Spain’s Canary Islands, considered one of the world’s most dangerous.
While there has been a “significant” decrease in migrant arrivals in the Canaries, “a new, more distant and more dangerous” route to the archipelago has emerged with departures from Guinea, it said.
The group compiles its figures from families of migrants and official statistics of those rescued. It included 437 children and 192 women among the dead.
Caminando Fronteras also noted there had been a rise in the number of boats leaving from Algeria, mainly to the holiday islands of Ibiza and Formentera in the Mediterranean.
Traditionally used by Algerians, the route is seeing a surge of migrants from Somalia, Sudan, and South Sudan in 2025, the group said.
The number of deaths on this route had doubled this year to 1,037 when compared to 2024, it added.
At least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea in 2024, according to Caminando Fronteras, the highest number recorded since it began tracking data in 2007.
Spain’s interior ministry says 35,935 migrants reached Spain until December 15 this year, a 40-percent decrease from the same period last year.
Nearly half of them came through the Atlantic migration route from the coast of West Africa to the Canary Islands.
