TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - President Jokowi has said he would leave for Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), to visit the victims of the Lombok quake next week. The president said he could not make the trip due to security reasons.
“Because there are still aftershocks, I have been advised to go there on Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday,” Jokowi said at the State Palace in Jakarta, Friday, August 10, 2018.
Jokowi added he could not yet declare the Lombok quake as a national disaster as he needed to have prior talks on the matter with his ministers and NTB Governor Zainul Majdi at the Presidential Office this afternoon. “There is going to have a limited meeting with the governor,” he said.
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A 7.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Lombok on Sunday, August 5, 2018, and aftershocks have been recurring ever since. The last aftershock took place on Thursday, August 9, 2018, claiming five more lives in Mataram.
The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the death toll prior to the last aftershock, which measured 6.2 on the Richter Scale, was 131, while the NTB government said it reached 226.
The Lombok quake has injured 1,447 people and displaced some 156,000 others. Around 6,000 tourists have been evacuated and 100,000 others scrapped their planned visits.
House deputy speaker Fahri Hamzah via his Twitter account has called on the government to declare the Lombok quake as a national disaster.
AHMAD FAIZ IBNU SANI