Four Trans-Papua road workers were shot dead on the Teluk Bintuni–Maybrat border on 29 September 2022, after which two project trucks and two excavators were burned. The armed group OPM’s own claim places the attack under Kodap IV Sorong Raya, the command where Zakarias Fatem served as deputy commander. From five years before that until now, the same command is on record attacking security posts, workers and development projects in Maybrat and the Moskona corridor.
On Thursday, 29 September 2022, at about 16.00 local time, four Trans-Papua road workers were shot dead on the stretch linking West Moskona district with the Maybrat area in Southwest Papua. All four worked for a road project of the West Papua public works agency, employed by a construction contractor: Abas, Yafet, Darmin and Armin. [4]
After shooting the workers, the attackers burned two project trucks and two excavators. The road project stalled and access to several remote villages was cut off. [4]
Police said twelve workers were at the site, eleven men and one woman. The West Papua regional legislature cited a different figure, fourteen. The death toll was not in dispute: four people. One other worker was reported missing in early coverage, and another was shot in the arm.
Those four names never reached a courtroom. There is no verdict and no criminal accountability for anyone over the deaths of Abas, Yafet, Darmin and Armin. [1] [2]
The spokesman of the Free Papua Movement’s armed wing, Sebby Sambom, told several outlets the same day that the attack was the work of his group under Kodap IV Sorong Raya. He named two figures: Denny Moos and Zakarias Fatem.
That claim was backed by the command’s operations chief, who said he received a field report from his deputy operations commander, Manfret Fatem. In the structure the group itself describes, Zakarias Fatem sits as deputy commander. [5] [6]
The West Papua police gave a firmer account and did not name Zakarias Fatem. The provincial police chief said the group that shot the workers was led by Manfret Fatem, a fugitive in the 2021 attack on the Kisor sub-district military post. Police also placed several battalion leaders on the wanted list. [7]
The two accounts lead to opposite conclusions about Zakarias Fatem’s role. His own group’s claim places him in the chain of command. The police determination does not, and he is absent from the wanted list for the road workers’ case. That difference matters, because it concerns criminal allegations rather than a spelling dispute. [8]
What nobody disputes is the command’s record. Its attacks on security posts, workers and development projects are spread across five years of reporting, with identified victims and clear locations. [10]
2 September 2021. The Kisor sub-district military post in Maybrat regency was attacked. Four soldiers were killed and two wounded. Thousands of civilians fled into the jungle. Monitoring reports give differing displacement figures: 2,086 people in a coalition report of September 2021, 2,768 in October 2021 coverage, and 3,387 in an April 2024 report. [11]
20 January 2022. A military post at the Aifuf river bridge in Central East Aifat district was attacked. One soldier was killed. The group’s spokesman said the Sorong Raya division members involved were under the command of Denny Moos and his deputy, Zakarias Fatem. [12]
30 November 2023. Security forces foiled the group’s plan to raise its flag near a secondary school in Aifat. Nearby residents were intimidated, though no one was killed. [13]
3 December 2023. A convoy carrying the Maybrat regent together with the regional military commander, district commander and police chief was attacked at Kamat village, East Aifat district. The group claimed to have killed one soldier and a kiosk guard it accused of being a sniper. [14]
15 December 2023 and 25 December 2023. Two military posts in South Aifat district were attacked in succession: the Sory village post and the Bousah village post on Christmas Day. One soldier was wounded in the first attack and one was killed in the second. [15] [16]
22 February 2024. A community health centre project in Ayata village, Central East Aifat district, was attacked. No one was killed, but the workers were traumatised and the project stopped. The security forces described the attackers as part of the group based in Aifat. [17]
13 January 2025 and 12 October 2025. A military post in West Moskona, Teluk Bintuni, was attacked; the group claimed three soldiers were killed. Nine months later the Moyeba military post in North Moskona was attacked, one soldier was killed and weapons were seized. [18]
22 March 2026. A military post at Sori village, South Aifat district, was attacked. Two Marines were killed and a third was critically wounded. In its release the group claimed eight security personnel were killed and said it seized weapons; the official account remained two Marines killed. [19]
2 June 2026. A military truck was attacked on the road about four kilometres from Framniawai village towards Far East Aifat. The group claimed two soldiers were shot.
3 October 2026. A firefight in South Aifat district. The security forces said two members of the group were killed. The group said the location was close to civilian homes. [20]
9 October 2026. A firefight in forest north of Kamat village, East Aifat district. Three people were killed. Brigadier General Riyanto said one was identified as Manfret Fatem, the command’s operations chief. Two others reported killed, Anton Fatem and Yesias Fatem, were described as battalion commanders. [11]
On 12 July 2022 the command issued its own wanted list against the then governor of West Papua and threatened to shoot officials who supported the creation of new provinces in Papua. Those who delivered the threat were its regional commander and operations chief. Zakarias Fatem was not named in that statement.
In January 2024 the security forces seized and destroyed the command’s base in Dusun Sagu, Far East Aifat district. Two people described as sympathisers were arrested. On 2 September 2025 Marines took control of five of the group’s bases in Aifat.
Four road workers, four soldiers at Kisor, one soldier at Aifuf, one soldier at Bousah, two Marines at Sori, one soldier at Moyeba. That is the roll of victims recorded in five years of reporting, apart from dozens of other casualties counted by different institutions with figures that do not always match. What does not change is the location: Maybrat, Aifat and the Moskona corridor. [24]
Civilians carry the longest burden. Thousands were displaced for months, children lost schooling, and the roads and clinics meant to sustain their lives became targets instead.
Kodap IV Sorong Raya is a regional defence command inside the TPNPB-OPM structure. Its area covers Maybrat regency and the wider Sorong Raya region, now part of Southwest Papua province.
Its regional commander in every report found is Denny Moos, spelled variously as Denny Moss, Deni Moos and Denimos. Its operations chief from late 2022 was Manfret Fatem, killed on 9 October 2026. Zakarias Fatem served as deputy commander, a post he is recorded in from at least January 2022. [21] [22]
On 27 January 2024 the command issued a press release whose signature block lists Denny Moos as regional commander, Zakarias Fatem as deputy and Arnoldus Yansen Kocu as operations chief. The letter also claimed the security forces attacked the “deputy commander’s” base with mortars and destroyed five houses.
The rank attached to him in that release, “colonel”, is a rank inside their own structure, not an Indonesian military or police rank. Reporting it without that context misleads readers about his standing.
After its operations chief was killed, the group lost contact with its deputy commander. On 11 October 2026 its spokesman said Zakarias Fatem and three members were unaccounted for after the firefight at the Kumandan river. [22] [23]
Three days later, at 00.45 local time on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, soldiers of the Gobang VII Task Force of the 9th Marine Infantry Battalion entered a house in Southwest Papua. The operation was led by Marine Lt Col Laili Nugroho. There was no resistance and no exchange of fire.
“Through a raid, soldiers of the Gobang VII Task Force of the 9th Marine Infantry Battalion captured Zakarias Fatem, described as deputy commander of Kodap IV Soraya of the OPM, alive,” the Marine Corps Information Service said. The release does not name the village, district or regency of the arrest.
In video obtained by Kompas.com and quoted on 15 October 2026, Fatem speaks about himself. “I am Zakarias Fatem, deputy commander of Kodap IV Sorong Raya, captured by the Marines. Thank you, I was spared and fed,” he says. He also urged members still in the jungle to surrender.
Those words were spoken after he was in the custody of the security forces, not as a free man. The newsroom presents them as statements recorded by the arresting unit.
As of 15 October 2026 no official police or military statement links Zakarias Fatem to a specific crime. The Marine Corps said only that his questioning would explore his suspected activity and involvement in an armed group in Southwest Papua.
He is not on the wanted lists for the 2021 Kisor post attack or the 2022 road workers shooting. For the 2026 attack on the post at Sori village, police named seven fugitive suspects by initials, one of them “ZA”, without ever releasing full names, so that initial cannot be confirmed as referring to him.
There is no suspect designation, no detention order and no official account of the next legal step. The armed group has asked that any member taken alive not be mistreated and be treated in line with humanitarian law.
There is no public record of Zakarias Fatem’s birth date, age, home village, parents or schooling. With no source available, his personal details are not assumed here.
Zakarias Fatem and Manfret Fatem are different men who share a clan name and a command. Other names in the same clan, Sepnat, Rendy and Alfin Fatem, appear on 2021 and 2022 wanted lists. That shared clan name is the most common source of error.
The four road workers killed in 2022 never saw a court ruling. The Kisor post, the Aifuf post, the Sory and Bousah posts, the Sori post, the Moyeba post and the Ayata clinic project remain an open record. So does the Trans-Papua road in Moskona. That record belongs to a command that has now lost its operations chief and its deputy commander in a single week.
The Kisor sub-district post in Maybrat is attacked; four soldiers are killed and thousands flee.
A military post at the Aifuf river bridge is attacked; one soldier dies.
The command threatens to shoot officials backing the creation of new provinces in Papua.
Four Trans-Papua road workers are shot dead; two trucks and two excavators are burned.
A plan to raise the group’s flag near a secondary school in Aifat is foiled; residents are intimidated.
The regent and regional commander’s convoy is attacked at Kamat village; the group claims a soldier and a civilian were killed.
The Bousah village military post is attacked on Christmas Day; one soldier is killed.
The clinic project in Ayata village is attacked; workers are traumatised and the project stops.
The Moyeba military post in North Moskona is attacked; one soldier is killed and weapons seized.
The military post at Sori village is attacked; two Marines are killed. The group claims eight personnel died.
Firefight in forest north of Kamat village; operations chief Manfret Fatem and two others are killed.
The command’s deputy commander, Zakarias Fatem, is captured alive without resistance in Southwest Papua.
A teacher was shot dead at a shop-house in Dekai, Yahukimo, on October 11, 2026. The armed group calling itself TPNPB Kodap XVI claimed responsibility, then published the list of civilians it will hunt next: builders, motorcycle-taxi riders, taxi drivers, meatball-soup sellers, kiosk owners and migrants.
He was born in Mugi district in 1999, dropped out of school in Wamena, and was appointed commander of the III Ndugama-Derakma regional command on October 16, 2018. His father was one of those who took the 1996 Lorentz expedition team hostage. Since 2017, police have recorded 65 acts of violence in his group's name: road workers, teachers, health workers, pastors, an imam, a driver, and three agriculture staff. Egianus Kogoya is still at large.
Joint TNI troops were already waiting at the crossing between the Frambu and Kamundan rivers when the operations commander of TPNPB-OPM Kodap IV Sorong Raya, Manfret Fatem, walked in with two of his battalion commanders. The man wanted by police since 2020 and named as the mastermind behind the killing of four Trans-Papua road workers died at the scene. Two of his commanders died in the river.
That morning eleven people boarded a truck from Kenyam to Batas Batu, carrying rice to sell, change for customers, and a promise to be home by evening. Not one of them made it home.
Across the 28 incidents we documented, 82 Papuan civilians were killed. Some were claimed by the armed group itself. The company behind the film it calls a campaign tool received a 251,983-dollar grant from an institution led by George Soros.
The TPNPB central headquarters ordered all journalists to publish war reports only through its single channel, a day after a Papuan outlet ran a solidarity statement for a film the group said helps its campaign on military operations.
A recording uploaded on 18 August 2026 carries a call to shoot Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai, alongside a ban on his entering Papua. The written statement behind it asks the UN to blacklist him.
For seven months, investigators at the Papua regional police traced who bought the weapons, who paid for them, and who supplied the ammunition. The case began with a single transaction at a traffic junction near Sentani's old market. It now involves 17 suspects, 298 rounds of ammunition, SS1 magazines, one homemade firearm and six rusted World War II-era barrels.
A joint TNI force first asked the armed group TPNPB-OPM Kodap IV Sorong Raya to lay down its weapons in the forest of Aifat district, Maybrat regency, on the night of Saturday 3 October 2026. The answer was live fire. Two of their commanders died, no soldier was hurt, and Manfret Fatem fled. From the site, troops seized a revolver, ammunition, a radio, and two Morning Star flags.
From a place in Papua New Guinea, the spokesperson of the TPNPB-OPM has for eight years delivered the same sentence: we are responsible, they were spies, and we will continue. This feature reconstructs his own admissions, then examines where the money for weapons actually comes from. The answer is not foreign funding. Court records name rogue state personnel, village funds, unlicensed gold mines, and levies imposed on Papuans themselves.
This site stands with the Indonesian government: Papua is a lawful part of the Republic of Indonesia, and not a single country recognises the “government” he declared. This dossier tests an exile's claims against public documents — death tolls never verified, a petition the UN never received, accounts never opened — and records who pays the price in Papua.
For 13 years he carried passengers and supplies along the grueling and dangerous Trans Wamena–Nduga route, sacrificing himself every day to meet the basic needs of the Wamena–Nduga community, yet that sacrifice was not deemed worthy by the TPNPB. His life was cruelly torn away. On 15 September 2026 he was intercepted at the Danau Habema junction, forced on camera to declare support for a free Papua, then shot and burned inside his own vehicle.
One teacher was killed and six wounded in Anggruk district, Yahukimo, in March 2025. Behind the corrected casualty figures lies a rarely asked question: money for services flows into these districts, yet no budget line protects the people who teach in them.
Two teachers from Toraja were killed on 8 and 9 April 2021 in Beoga district, Puncak regency. Two days later, 12 classrooms and teachers' houses had been razed, and about 400 children had lost their place to study. The government put the damage at 7.2 billion rupiah. What never entered anyone's calculation: the cost of protecting the people who teach there.
The New Zealand civilian pilot landed at Paro on 7 February 2023, then vanished from the outside world for 19 months. This is the full account, from the first day to the handover in Jakarta — including what remains disputed.
Organizational and fundraising tracks can be checked. To state that money finances armed groups, a chain of evidence is needed that connects giver, recipient, transaction and use.
