Egianus Kogoya: Mass Killer of Nduga Civilians, 65 Attacks Since 2017 and Still at Large

Morning on the Kenyam–Batas Batu road

Saturday morning, July 16, 2022, around 09.15 local time. A truck was travelling from Kenyam to Batas Batu, carrying traders, an imam, a pastor and other passengers who simply wanted to work that day. At Nogolait village in Kenyam district, Nduga regency, the truck was stopped.

Eleven people died and two were wounded. The victims were found at four separate spots: near the truck, in front of a kiosk, on a slope, and near the regent's car. According to the police, those who fired were an armed group led by a 23-year-old man named Egianus Kogoya. [10] [11]

Four days later his name appeared in the news not as a wanted suspect, but as a man claiming credit. “Whoever they are, be it civilians, employees, workers, whether Papuans or non-Papuans, we will not compromise,” he said, as quoted by Jubi. “We will kill until Papua is free.” [10] [11]

Today, more than four years after Nogolait, he is still at large. No court has ever tried his name, there is no verdict, and the police have released no official photograph of him. What exists is a list of 16 wanted people, 65 cases of violence recorded by police since 2017, and a man who speaks to journalists through intermediaries or on video. [8] [9]

Son of a 1996 hostage-taker

His trail begins at home. His father is named in various records as Silas Elimin Kogoya, and some sources treat that as the same person as Daniel Yudas Kogoya. What is most often cited about him is his role, not his name. He was one of the Papuan armed figures who backed the seizure of 26 people by an armed group at Mapenduma on January 8, 1996, including members of the Lorentz expedition team. The Kopassus Museum, in its official account of the rescue operation, writes that the group was led by “Daniel Yudhas Kagoya and Kelly Kwalik.”

One note must be stated plainly. BBC News Indonesia, in its coverage of the Susi Air pilot's release, names “Silas Kogoya and Daniel Yudas Kogoya” as two separate figures who backed Kelly Kwalik in 1996. We cannot establish whether those two names are one man or two, because the sources disagree. What is not disputed: a Kogoya figure from Nduga was part of those 1996 events, and his son now leads an armed group in the same regency. According to the Jamestown Foundation, the father was recruited by Kelly Kwalik in the 1970s and died of illness in 2011. [6] [54] [55]

Egianus was born in 1999 in Mugi district, an area that now belongs to Nduga regency, and comes from the Dani ethnic group, of the Kogoya clan. He attended elementary school in Mugi, moved to Wamena for junior high school in 2011, and dropped out. The public record says he at one point refused to sing the Indonesian national anthem and to salute the flag. [54] [56]

His mother's name was never published in any source we examined. We write nothing about his mother, because nothing can be substantiated. [1] [3]

The names around him

Within the TPNPB-OPM armed structure, Egianus holds the post of commander of the III Ndugama-Derakma regional defence command, with the internal rank of “brigadier general.” He was appointed on October 16, 2018. A police estimate from 2023 put his force at about 50 people.

Several names are recorded below him: Pemne Kogoya as operations commander of the III regional command, and Rumianus Wandikbo as battalion commander or chief of staff. Above him sits the TPNPB central structure: Goliath Tabuni as supreme commander, Terianus Satto as chief of the general staff, and Sebby Sambom as the spokesman based abroad. [3] [4]

Two other names are often linked to him as brothers: Undius Kogoya, described as leading the VIII Soanggama regional command in Intan Jaya, and Ipe Kogoya. Both were reported dead in October 2025; Ipe was killed in a firefight at Soanggama village, Homeyo district, Intan Jaya. Mainstream reporting only confirms that Ipe was Undius's younger brother. Their link to Egianus as siblings comes from summary records not confirmed by the authorities, so we report it as it stands. [3]

One other name was raised directly by the group's spokesman: Edison Gwijangge, a former acting regent of Nduga, whom Sebby Sambom described as Egianus's “brother-in-law.” In 2024, Sebby accused Egianus of receiving government money through Edison. Egianus and his family denied it. [1] [41]

Eight years, and the numbers on record

Police trace the group's first action to December 2017: the killing of a Trans-Papua road worker named Yovicko Sondakh in Mugi district. Since then, the official figure most often cited by security forces is 65 cases since 2017.

Senior Commissioner Donny Charles, then head of public information for the Damai Cartenz task force, listed the types of violence. They were, in his words, “murder, rape, shootings, destruction of buildings, massacres and other crimes committed by the Egianus Kogoya group in Nduga regency.” Police data in 2023 put the death toll from this group at 56. Another release counted 74 killed and wounded combined. [1] [35]

Those figures belong to the security forces, and we report them as the security forces' figures. What anyone can verify is the events themselves: victims' names, dates, locations, and the admissions that came from the group's own mouth. That is what this page contains. [35] [36]

Teachers, health workers, and fourteen days in Mapenduma

October 2018. Teachers and health workers in Mapenduma district were held hostage for 14 days. They worked at YPGRI 1 elementary school, SMPN 1 junior high and the Mapenduma health centre. One victim was seriously injured, and a teacher was reported to have been gang-raped by members of the armed group. Another report says three teachers suffered sexual violence.

The reason given at the time: the teachers and health workers were suspected of being undercover intelligence officers. The same suspicion surfaced again many times in later years, and each time the victims were civilians working in public facilities. [12] [13] [14]

Two months after Mapenduma, on December 2, 2018, it was the turn of Trans-Papua road workers in Yigi district. The national police chief at the time, General Tito Karnavian, stated there were 20 victims: 19 workers of PT Istaka Karya and one soldier, with four people reported missing. Pastor Wilhelmus Kogoya of the Yigi district church reported a higher figure of 31 dead, while Jubi reported 24 workers. [12] [14]

Meanwhile, the statement claiming responsibility denied that the victims were civilians. “Our target was not wrong, we know which are civilian workers and which are army engineers,” TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom said. [15] [16] [17]

Eleven names at Nogolait

The Nogolait massacre of July 16, 2022, is the event that made Egianus Kogoya's name impossible to dismiss as just another fugitive. Those who died that day: Yulius Watu (23), Hubertus Goti, Daeng Marannu (42, an imam), Taufan Amir (42), Johan (26), Alex (45), Yuda Nurusinga (42), Nasjen (41), and Mahmud Ismaun (50, the Nduga regent's driver). One more victim was Pastor Eliaser Baye (54) of the GKII church. The toll grew from 9 to 10 and then 11 as one more body was found days later.

The head of the Komnas HAM Papua regional office, Frits Ramandey, used heavy language for a country that claims its territory is secure: “This is a grave violation and is categorised as a crime against humanity. This cruel violence must be investigated by law enforcement, and this massacre also happened in 2018 by the same group.” [10] [11] [12]

The Communion of Churches in Indonesia demanded the same and added a request that recurs to this day: the creation of an independent investigation team to probe the killing of civilians at Nogolait. [11]

For years, Nduga paid not only in bodies. The Kingmi Papua church recorded that around 30,000 of its members were displaced by the sequence of operations and violence in the area. Schools stopped, health centres emptied, and some districts turned into abandoned villages. [19] [42]

A pilot, and nineteen months

On February 7, 2023, a Pilatus PC-6 aircraft of Susi Air was burned after landing at Paro airstrip in Nduga. Its pilot, Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a New Zealand citizen, was held hostage for 19 months until September 21, 2024. Five civilian passengers were briefly held and then released.

Egianus explained his own reason. “I took that pilot only because I want independence. I never asked for a ransom. If Papua is not independent, we will not hand over the pilot,” he said in 2023. Before the aircraft was burned, his group was also reported to have intimidated 15 workers building the Paro health centre until they were evacuated. [23] [24]

What is rarely mentioned afterwards: what he asked for was not money. The Papua police chief at the time, Inspector General Mathius Fakhiri, said the group demanded firearms and ammunition in exchange for the pilot. “It is true that Egianus made several demands, among them firearms and ammunition to be exchanged for the pilot,” he said. [23] [47] [51] [52]

The coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs at the time, Mahfud MD, rejected it with a line widely quoted then: “Barter weapons with rebels? Out of the question.” The government never met that demand. [51]

What reporting most often leaves out: the kidnapping ended not through a military operation but through a soft approach — religious figures, the church, customary leaders and Egianus's own family. The government handed Mehrtens to the New Zealand ambassador in September 2024. [52]

After Nogolait

August 16, 2023, Yasoma village on the Batas Batu–Kenyam route: three civilians were killed after being shot and beaten, and the truck they were travelling in was burned. Their names were Samsul Ahmad (25), Sthepen Didiwai and Michael Rumaropen, two of them civil servants in Nduga. The Papua police chief at the time said the perpetrators were “very likely” Egianus Kogoya's group.

October 16, 2023, Kali EI in Seradala district, Yahukimo: a group of gold panners became victims. One of Egianus's trusted men, Rife Kerebea, was arrested on August 17, 2024 and linked to this case, the 2022 theft of police weapons, and Nogolait. [26]

June 4, 2025, Kwantapo village in Asotipo district, Jayawijaya: two workers building the GKI Imanuel church were shot dead. Both came from Purwakarta, West Java: Rahmat Hidayat (45), shot in the head, and Saepudin (39), shot in the armpit. [27] [28]

On August 6, 2025, security forces arrested Nowaiten Telenggen, also known as German Ubruangge, who admitted involvement in the 2022 shooting of an armoured vehicle, the shooting of a SAM Air aircraft at Kenyam airstrip, and the Nogolait massacre. His role: supplying food and documenting the attacks. [48] [49]

2026: a cultural festival, and three agriculture staff

August 8, 2026, near the entrance to the Baliem Valley Cultural Festival in Walesi village, Walesi district, Jayawijaya: two civilians were shot and wounded, Laode Muhammad Kojo (43) and Salbiah (50). It happened around 12.45 local time, and foreign tourists were evacuated. Security forces indicated the Kodap III Ndugama-Derakma group, and the group itself claimed responsibility.

September 9, 2026, Muliama district, Jayawijaya: eleven staff of the Jayawijaya agriculture office were delivering livestock aid and inspecting a rice-field programme site when they were shot at. Three died: Aprida Rapi' (49), Albinus Mehan (35) and Wili Mbuik (24). Eight survived. The Damai Cartenz task force named the Kodap III Ndugama group led by Egianus Kogoya, and two suspects were placed on the wanted list. [30] [31]

A month earlier, on July 29–30, 2026, the group published its own “wanted” list: Papuans and non-Papuans accused of being intelligence agents, accompanied by a threat that leaves no room for interpretation. “Then we are ready to execute and shoot them dead.” [32] [33]

In his own words

Few Papuan armed leaders have spoken to the media this often. Egianus is among the most quoted, and his sentences rarely comfort those who hope he is merely a victim of circumstance.

In 2020, he claimed his group bought weapons and ammunition from rogue officers: “They sold them, so we bought them. We bought them because we needed them for our battle.” He also claimed to have seized weapons in firefights. [5] [7]

On October 4, 2024, he gave an interview to BBC News Indonesia. It was blunt and direct. “We will keep fighting until Papua breaks free,” he said. “War is our hobby. We enjoy war.” And the most quoted line: “So we will not spare non-Papuan civilians either. We will shoot non-Papuan civilians.” [7]

That sentence matters not because it is harsh, but because it matches what happens on the ground. From Nogolait to Muliama, the victims of this group are overwhelmingly people who carry no weapons: traders, health workers, pastors, imams, and agriculture office staff. [5] [8]

What is being demanded, and who is displaced

The demand human rights bodies repeat most often is not about who governs Nduga but about who answers for the deaths of civilians. Komnas HAM Papua asked for a thorough investigation of the Nogolait massacre and called it a crime against humanity; the Communion of Churches in Indonesia asked for an independent investigation team.

In 2026, Komnas HAM chair Anis Hidayah recorded six human rights violation cases in Papua that year with 21 people dead, and called on no side — security forces or armed groups — to make civilians a target. [11] [42]

On the other side, this group has admirers abroad who call it freedom fighters. What that spotlight misses are the names on this page: Pastor Eliaser Baye, the imam Daeng Marannu, the teachers of Mapenduma, two church workers from Purwakarta, and three Jayawijaya agriculture staff who died on a gravel road. [44] [45]

His status today

After the burning of the Susi Air aircraft, the Papua regional police issued a list of 16 wanted people, and Egianus Kogoya's name was on it. What does not exist: a formal designation as a terrorist organisation through a court ruling, and a cash reward for his capture. The Rp5 billion figure that circulated was not a demand by the group. The Papua police chief said the government prepared up to that amount as an alternative in case the group asked for money, while stressing that their two demands — independence and weapons — could not be granted.

In May 2026, the TPNPB central command issued a statement saying Egianus had been killed in an attack in Nduga on May 18. Nine days later, a statement attributed to Egianus denied it and called it “play-acting by the Indonesian military.” TNI never confirmed the death. In July 2026, the same channels broadcast his apology to the central command after internal sanctions, then backed him again to lead the fighting. [36] [46] [53]

As of this writing, police have released no official photograph of him, and no court has brought charges against him. What remains is a regency that lost schools, churches and its trails; a 27-year-old fugitive; and a list of names that grows every year. [43] [44]

What we did not write

We do not print the name of Egianus Kogoya's mother, the number of his siblings, his wife or his children, because no public source can substantiate them. That absence is not this newsroom's failing; the information has simply never been published.

We also discarded several claims in circulation. The alias “Kogoya Waker” appears in no source we could find, so we do not use it. The claim that he was designated a terrorist under government regulation in lieu of law No. 1 of 2022 is not supported by any official document we could find. And every 2026 statement from outlets aligned with TPNPB — including the reports of his death and his apology — we report as claims, not facts.

Finally, we do not write that every act of violence in Nduga is his work. Other factions operate in the area, including the Kodap II Baliem group and Elkius Kobak's men in Seradala, and security forces have also shot civilians — several cases in Maybrat and Nduga are still under investigation by human rights bodies. What we write is what is attributed to him by the authorities and admitted by his own group, with sources for every paragraph.