'Very dangerous': Timor-Leste shuts schools over Indonesia haze

East Timor has implemented a three-day school closure starting Thursday due to thick haze drifting from forest fires in neighboring Indonesia. The government advised citizens to wear masks and urged families to keep children indoors to protect student health. In the capital, Dili, residents have been observed wearing masks under a yellow-tinged sky.

Channel News Asia reports that these fires have burned hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest and plantations, causing air pollution to surge in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Timor-Leste.

In Indonesia, the Health Ministry has recorded 277,075 cumulative cases of acute respiratory infections across seven provinces affected by forest and peatland fires. According to The Vibes, children aged five and below account for 62,400 of these cases, representing 22.5% of the total. The fires have been exacerbated by a strong El Nino and the practice of slash-and-burn land clearing.

The Guardian reports that nearly 900,000 hectares have been burned across Indonesia since January, marking the worst fire season in more than a decade.

To combat the haze, Indonesia is testing a new approach in South Sumatra involving the dispersal of dry ice from planes. This follows previous efforts such as cloud seeding and water bombing. New Straits Times reports that nearly 17,000 personnel have been mobilized to battle fires in Central Kalimantan and South Sumatra, though poor visibility has hampered aerial firefighting operations. The Forestry Ministry noted that high-confidence hotspots across six priority provinces rose to 294 as of Wednesday night.

Brief written by urgent.news from Channel News Asia, Free Malaysia Today, The Guardian, The Vibes, New Straits Times — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.