Indonesia wildfires spread toxic haze across Borneo and Malaysia

Wildfires fueled by an intensifying El Niño and prolonged dry season are scorching large areas of Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra islands, generating a toxic haze that has blanketed cities, forced school closures, and drifted into neighboring Malaysia and Brunei. Indonesia's health ministry says 3.4 million people in seven provinces are at risk of respiratory infections Source: Euronews.

What happened

Fires between January and July burned more than 200,000 hectares, an area three times the size of Jakarta, according to the government Source: Al Jazeera. The AP reports that nearly 94,000 hectares burned in July alone Source: AP News. Satellite data on Monday showed South Sumatra with the highest number of hotspots (1,429), followed by West Kalimantan (1,226) and Central Kalimantan (811) Source: AP News.

The response

Indonesia has deployed thousands of personnel, helicopters, and aircraft for water-bombing and cloud-seeding operations Source: AP News. President Prabowo Subianto ordered an additional 1,500 soldiers to Borneo Source: Al Jazeera. Police have arrested 72 suspects in connection with 89 fire cases across five provinces on Borneo and four on Sumatra Source: AP News. The forestry ministry is processing 42 cases and has sanctioned six companies for failing to prevent fires in their concession areas Source: CNA.

Cross-border impact

Malaysia has been severely affected, with nearly 600 schools closed in Sarawak and unhealthy air quality readings in multiple areas Source: SCMP. Indonesia has granted Malaysia permission to conduct cloud-seeding operations in its airspace to tackle the transboundary haze Source: CNA. At one point, Kuala Lumpur was ranked the second-most polluted city globally by IQ Air Source: Euronews.

Disagreements

Sources differ on the total area burned: Al Jazeera reports over 200,000 hectares burned between January and July Source: Al Jazeera, while AP News cites Nusantara Atlas data showing about 285,000 hectares burned this year Source: AP News. The discrepancy may reflect different reporting periods and data sources.