Indonesia’s Annual Exodus Starts Ahead of Eid Al-Fitr Festivities

A drone view shows a traffic jam towards the port of Merak, as Indonesian Muslims travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, known locally as "mudik", in Cilegon, Banten province, Indonesia, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view shows a traffic jam towards the port of Merak, as Indonesian Muslims travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, known locally as "mudik", in Cilegon, Banten province, Indonesia, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Indonesia’s Annual Exodus Starts Ahead of Eid Al-Fitr Festivities

A drone view shows a traffic jam towards the port of Merak, as Indonesian Muslims travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, known locally as "mudik", in Cilegon, Banten province, Indonesia, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view shows a traffic jam towards the port of Merak, as Indonesian Muslims travel to their hometowns to celebrate Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, known locally as "mudik", in Cilegon, Banten province, Indonesia, April 7, 2024. (Reuters)

Aditya Nugraha, a 21-year-old Indonesian, was travelling from the capital city of Jakarta to his hometown of Palembang on Sumatra island, over 500 km (310 miles) away, to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr this week.

The festival, also called Lebaran in Indonesia, marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. It falls on Wednesday this year and the entire week will be celebrated by more than 220 million people in Indonesia, which has one of the world's largest Muslim populations.

Aditya was one of the many millions travelling to his hometown in a mass exodus known locally as "mudik" and usually marked by hours of traffic jams, especially on the main island of Java.

"We departed from home last night around 9, and now it's been 13 hours and we are still stuck in this very long traffic. Hopefully, there will be a solution to this soon," Aditya told Reuters on Monday, waiting to enter the port in the town of Merak for a ferry to cross from Java to Sumatra.

Drone footage on Monday showed thousands of vehicles queuing to enter the ferries, while many more were on the road heading to the port, stretching far outside Merak.

People living in Jakarta, a city of 11 million people, started leaving the capital over the weekend, according to the Transport Ministry.

Around 193 million people were expected to travel during the festivities this year, according to a survey by the ministry, around 56% higher compared to the number of travelers during the Eid holidays last year.



UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
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UN Puts 4th Century Gaza Monastery on Endangered Site List

The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File
The Saint Hilarion complex dates back to the fourth century. Mahmud HAMS / AFP/File

The Saint Hilarion complex, one of the oldest monasteries in the Middle East, has been put on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites in danger due to the war in Gaza, the body said Friday.
UNESCO said the site, which dates back to the fourth century, had been put on the endangered list at the demand of Palestinian authorities and cited the "imminent threats" it faced.
"It's the only recourse to protect the site from destruction in the current context," Lazare Eloundou Assomo, director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, told AFP, referring to the war sparked by Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel.
In December, the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict decided to grant "provisional enhanced protection" -- the highest level of immunity established by the 1954 Hague Convention -- to the site.
UNESCO had then said it was "already concerned about the state of conservation of sites, before October 7, due to the lack of adequate policies to protect heritage and culture" in Gaza.
The Hamas attack on October 7 resulted in the deaths of 1,197 people in Israel, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 39,175 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, which does not give details of civilian and militant deaths.