Australia sends military aircraft to help fight Indonesia fires

Indonesia has been battling a series of devastating wildfires in Borneo that have produced toxic haze and harmed human health across the region. In response, the Australian government has sent a military transport aircraft to assist Indonesia in putting out the blazes. The C-130 Hercules plane departed from Jakarta earlier this week for East Kalimantan province, where it will join local water-bombing efforts.

According to the Indonesian disaster agency chief, numerous hotspots remain in the region, as confirmed by monitoring data and consultations with an Australian technical team. The C-130 can drop 15,000 liters of water per sortie, or over 100,000 liters per day. Australia has also dispatched a Cessna Citation aircraft as a guide plane and 20 personnel, including pilots, flight crew, and paramedics.

This joint air operation is expected to last for seven days, from November 6th to 12th. The wildfires have consumed more than 1.9 million hectares of land in Indonesia's first nine months of the year, according to a deforestation monitor. Experts attribute much of the destruction to slash-and-burn land-clearing practices linked to timber, palm oil, and mining operations.

Over 400,000 people in Indonesia have sought treatment for acute respiratory ailments caused by the hazardous haze, as reported by the country's health ministry. Japan has also contributed to the effort by sending about 350 Self-Defense Forces members with three helicopters to assist in firefighting operations in West Kalimantan in September.