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 ambush rested on something senior officers rarely state openly: A1-rated intelligence from the National Intelligence Agency.
Friday morning, October 9, 2026. In the forest north of Kamat village, East Aifat district, Maybrat regency, Southwest Papua, a joint TNI patrol team was already waiting at the crossing between the Frambu and Kamundan rivers. They were not walking aimlessly. They were waiting for a man who had been on a wanted list since 2020 and hunted by security forces since 2021. [10] [12] [17] [19] [20]
That man was the operations commander of TPNPB-OPM Kodap IV Sorong Raya, Manfret Fatem, spelled Manfred Fatem in some reports. That morning he did not walk alone. With him were two battalion commanders: Antonius Assem, also known as Anton Fatem, commander of the Ayosami battalion, and Yesias Fatem, commander of the Mosata battalion, both in the same regional command. [7] [10] [12] [17] [19] [22] [23] [27]
According to the official statement of the TNI Habema Joint Operations Command, the firefight took place at 08.25 local time. Other sources give different hours: ANTARA reported around 09.01 local time as part of Operation Badai Kasuari 3.10, Metro TV quoted the Kogabwilhan III commander naming 09.10, and Kompas.com said around 10.00. We record the discrepancy as it is. What does not differ is the day: Friday, October 9, 2026. [7] [9] [17] [20] [22] [23] [27]
The waiting force was the Joint Patrol Team of Denkul 4/Task Force Rajawali V together with Task Force Yonif 9 Marines, under the control of TNI Habema Joint Operations Command and Kogabwilhan III. The operation was not improvised. Reports describe it as a follow-up to a joint operation on October 5, 2026, and part of the Operation Badai Kasuari 3.10 series in the area. [1] [4] [8] [10] [20] [36]
The commander of the III Joint Regional Defense Command, Lieutenant General Lucky Avianto, delivered the result to journalists. Quoting Metro TV: “Three OPM figures: Manfred Fatem himself, whose post is operations commander of Kodap IV Sorong Raya,” he said. “Then Anton Fatem, whose post is commander of the Ayosami battalion of Kodap IV Sorong Raya, and Yesias Fatem, whose post is commander of the Mosata battalion of Kodap IV Sorong Raya.”
The fate of each man also came from Lucky. “Manfret Fatem was reported killed at the scene, while Anton Fatem and Yesias Fatem were reported killed as they tried to flee toward the Frambu River area. The search for the two bodies, said to have drowned in the river, is still underway,” he said, as quoted by ANTARA. [7] [8] [22] [23]
Jakarta Globe noted what distinguishes this incident from many other firefights in Papua: only one body was recovered at the scene. The other two were carried away by the current and remain missing. Jakarta Globe also noted that the military did not explain whether the three men, who share the same surname, are related. [2] [5] [25]
After the shooting stopped, troops swept the site. According to ANTARA, two firearms were seized: an AK-101 and a Caracal, along with dozens of rounds and a Morning Star flag. A report by iNews Sorong Raya added a detail rarely mentioned in official statements: the Caracal was reportedly swept away by the river and is still being searched for.
No TNI soldier was hurt. The head of information of TNI Habema Joint Operations Command, Infantry Lieutenant Colonel M. Wirya Arthadiguna, put it briefly: “Based on preliminary reports, there were no casualties among TNI personnel in that firefight.” [4] [19] [27]
Habema commander Brigadier General Riyanto explained the reasoning behind his troops' method. “Any armed threat endangering the safety of the public and of personnel must be handled firmly and professionally. But our main goal is to create a safe space so people can live in peace, public services run, and social life grows again,” he said. He also sent one sentence straight into the forest: “To our brothers still in the forest, the path to peace remains open.” [12]
The list of seized items matters not for its length but for what it says. A group moving through the forest with an assault rifle, a pistol, ammunition and a flag is not heading to a negotiating table. It is carrying a war into other people's forest. [25] [26] [33]
What made the ambush happen at the right spot was not luck. A day after the firefight, Lucky Avianto said something senior TNI officers rarely state openly. “Based on the operational information provided, the success of the action was supported by A1-rated intelligence from the National Intelligence Agency (BIN),” he said. ANTARA quoted the statement and Liputan6, Beritasatu, Tribun, VOI, Suara.com and several other outlets republished it on October 10, 2026.
In intelligence practice, the A1 marking is the highest rating on a scale that grades two things at once: the reliability of the source and the credibility of the information. That means the report used was not third-hand rumor, but a report believed to come from a trustworthy source and already checked. [2] [5] [16] [24] [26] [38] [39]
Lucky explained why that matters for civilians, not just for troops. “Information about the whereabouts of an armed group helps personnel determine the target of an operation and reduces risk to civilians around the area of action,” he said. He described the synergy between BIN and TNI operational units as a key part of confronting threats of armed violence. [2]
For an area like Maybrat, that difference is not technical. For years the armed group there moved between villages, gardens and the Trans-Papua road under construction. Operations that shoot blindly produce victims on both sides. Operations that know exactly who is being sought and where he is have a better chance of ending with only those being sought. [2] [5] [25] [26]
There is one more thing Lucky said, and it is a claim that must be tested. He mentioned information about an alleged internal rift in Kodap IV Sorong Raya: Manfret and his two subordinates were said to have seen support fall among some members dissatisfied with their leadership. As of this writing, no statement from the group confirms or denies it. [51]
Rules of engagement were cited in the same statement: all personnel under Kogabwilhan III control are required to prioritize rules of engagement, statutory provisions and respect for human rights. Lucky closed with the Roman legal principle TNI often invokes: salus populi suprema lex esto, the safety of the people is the supreme law. [16]
Manfret Fatem was not a new name. In December 2020 the police named him a fugitive in the murder of a civilian in East Aifat district. VOI quoted police statements from September 2021 that he was also wanted for the murder of a West Papua Police Mobile Brigade member in Teluk Bintuni regency and for the killing of two civilians in Maybrat in 2020.
The most frequently cited act of violence happened in the early hours of September 2, 2021, in Kisor. The Kisor military sub-district post was attacked by dozens of people armed with bows, machetes and firearms. Four army soldiers died: Second Sergeant Amrosius, Private Dirham, Private Zul Ansari and Second Lieutenant Dirman. Two others were wounded. TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom told Tempo the group was responsible and named the Kodap IV Sorong Raya commander as the executor. Police put 17 people on a wanted list, including Manfret Fatem. [42] [53]
After Kisor, attacks on posts and soldiers repeated. On January 20, 2022, soldiers of the 20/PPA engineering battalion building the Fankario–Kamat bridge in East Aifat were shot at; Sergeant Miskel Rumbiak died and four soldiers were wounded. On December 25, 2023, Christmas Day, the Bousha post in South Aifat was attacked; one soldier of the 133/Yudha Sakti battalion died and one was wounded. The then head of the TNI information center, Major General Nugraha Gumilar, said the attack that desecrated Christmas was carried out by the OPM wing led by Manfred Fatem. [40] [41] [42] [43]
The act that touched civilians most directly happened on September 29, 2022, on the Trans Bintuni–Maybrat road. Fourteen workers of the PT Doreri Makmur project were attacked. Four died, one went missing, two heavy machines and three trucks were burned. Police called Manfret Fatem the mastermind. The police version names the dead as Abbas, Armin, Darmin and Yafet; Jubi's version names Sitinjak (25), Om Kumis (55), Halim (20) and a woman named Reva (28). We print both name lists side by side because no single official list has closed the gap. [43] [48]
Komnas HAM Papua established one thing about those workers: they were unarmed. “The workers did not have firearms. There was one person who carried an air rifle to shoot birds,” said Frits Ramandey, head of the Komnas HAM Papua regional office, as quoted by Jubi. [44] [45] [46] [47]
On March 22, 2026, it was the Sorry village observation post in South Aifat that was attacked. Two navy soldiers died, Private Mar Elki Saputra and Private Mar Andi Suvio, one was seriously wounded, and two firearms and 75 rounds were taken. Police named seven suspects and fugitives: Manfred Fatem, Anthon Fatem, Markus Faumar, Zamuel Assem, Markus Fatem, Donatus Aisnak and Yohanes Ky. detikcom described that incident as one of the reasons Manfret Fatem's name became widely known this week. [47]
Threats were also aimed directly at civilians and at human rights officials. In April 2025, through a statement by Sebby Sambom, the group urged civilians seen as linked to the Indonesian military in Sungai Rawara to evacuate immediately. [13] [28] [30] [49]
In the same statement Sambom said that if the head of Komnas HAM Papua, Frits Ramandey, were shot, it would be “justified”. In September 2025, The Jakarta Post reported that Marines retook Muara Oasin in South Aifat from Manfret Fatem's camp, and described the group as terrorizing the population by killing civilians, attacking military posts and ambushing vehicles.
Manfret Fatem himself almost never spoke directly to the media. All of the group's claims were delivered through the TPNPB spokesman. He was a name that appeared in many police reports, and rarely appeared on screen as a speaker. [51] [52]
The October 9 ambush was not the beginning. Four days earlier, on the night of Saturday, October 3, 2026, a joint force acted against the same group in the forests of Aifat district. Two men died: Arso Aisnak, described by TNI as commander of defense region command II of Kodap IV Sorong Raya, and Yohanes KY, commander of the Karef Hamit battalion.
Lucky Avianto described the two in language unusual for a general. “Arso Aisnak and Yohanes KY, known as a deadly duo, the pair of executioners who always carried out every crime against humanity committed by TPNPB-OPM Kodap IV Sorong Raya,” he said, as quoted by detikcom.
TPNPB responded with a mourning statement on October 5, 2026. It claimed one of them was captured alive and died after being tortured in a security vehicle, and asked that the body be handed to family and church. The claim was not verified by independent parties and was not answered by TNI in the official statements we could find. [14] [15] [28] [29]
Before that, the group was also shrinking from within. On May 13, 2024, thirty Maybrat residents who had joined Manfret Fatem's group returned to Indonesia. According to reports, they said they had been intimidated with weapons into joining. On June 25–26, 2026, ten members of Kodap IV Sorong Raya returned and handed over six firearms — some reports said 37 people if family members are counted. On August 16, 2026, one of the group's leaders surrendered at a TNI post in Maybrat. [14] [60] [61]
The numbers about Maybrat are almost always about people who did not join the fight. After the Kisor attack in September 2021, 2,086 residents from 36 villages across five districts were displaced, including 69 toddlers and 11 people who were ill, according to a civil society coalition. A month later the figure had reached 2,768 people scattered across 50 villages.
The situation did not end in months. Komnas HAM recorded 5,296 Maybrat displaced people still living in Sorong city as of July 2023. Human Rights Monitor recorded 95 displaced people dying between September 2021 and August 2023: 16 adult men, 46 adult women, five children and two infants. BBC News Indonesia quoted Komnas HAM recording 138 residents dying in displacement because basic needs went unmet. [54] [55]
Schools also became casualties. Human Rights Monitor recorded at least ten elementary schools and one junior high school in Maybrat still abandoned after the Kisor attack; several were used as security posts. Health services and church activities also stopped in the affected districts. The children who could not go to school appear in no casualty statistic at all. [53] [55] [56]
Returns were slow. Of the 706 displaced families recorded by Komnas HAM in 2023, only 202 households had gone home by 2024. Only at the end of September 2026 did Komnas HAM facilitate the return of dozens of women and children from Maybrat who had stayed in the forest for about six years. On October 2, 2026, a number of displaced residents returned to their village. [53]
As of this writing, the two bodies most discussed in Maybrat this week are precisely the ones not yet found. Anton Fatem and Yesias Fatem died in water, not on land, and the search continues. Brigadier General Riyanto said the identities of the two victims besides Manfret are still being verified, although preliminary information names them as battalion commanders in the Kodap IV Sorong Raya structure.
In Maybrat's villages, the phrase “not yet found” usually means two things at once: families cannot bury anyone, and there is no official certainty. Jakarta Globe wrote that the military did not explain whether the three men who share a surname are brothers. We do not write it either, because no source confirms it. [2] [5] [15] [27] [34]
For the October 9, 2026 incident, TPNPB-OPM spokesman Sebby Sambom had issued no statement as of October 10, 2026. Three outlets noted this explicitly. Kompas.id wrote that Sebby had not commented, Suara Papua said it was still seeking confirmation, and Batas Papua wrote there was no official statement from the TPNPB spokesman on the deaths of Manfred Fatem and two other members.
Kompas.id also noted something that explains why Sebby's silence is different this time: in various Maybrat incident reports, Sebby usually received his reports from Manfred Fatem. In other words, the information channel that for years connected events in Maybrat's forests to the public stage of statements no longer has anyone at its end. [12] [28] [34]
On October 5, 2026, TPNPB issued a mourning statement for Arso Aisnak and Yohanes KY. For Manfret Fatem, we found no mourning statement. If the group speaks later, its version must be recorded as a version, not as a fact. [12]
A day after the firefight, Maybrat police chief AKBP Jandry Denny Sairlela confirmed there was no unrest among residents. “Regarding this information, so far it remains conducive. There has been no unrest over the incident. Let us all try to keep public order,” he told iNews Sorong Raya. He said the Maybrat police had not added personnel, and acknowledged that communication with TNI colleagues at the site remained difficult.
What ran normally in Maybrat this week were precisely the things disrupted for years: markets, schools, churches and residents' daily activity. For people who have lived between two sides, security is not about who wins, but about whether tomorrow morning they can go to work without hearing gunfire. [18] [19]
We did not write that Manfret, Anton and Yesias Fatem are relatives. No source confirms that relationship; Jakarta Globe noted the military did not explain it either. Sharing a surname in Maybrat does not automatically mean kinship.
We did not write about rape cases by this group in Maybrat, because our searches found no such documented case tied to this group. Naming a crime that cannot be proven would only weaken everything on this page. [27]
We also did not use two other incidents often mixed into this group's record. First, the shooting of three civilians in Ainod village on August 13, 2026, which witnesses said was carried out by uniformed personnel; that incident is still under investigation and must not be counted as a crime by the armed group. Second, the shooting of two health workers in Tambrauw in March 2026, which was claimed by Kodap XXXIII, not Kodap IV.
We did not merge the name lists of the Trans Bintuni–Maybrat road workers killed in 2022 into a single list, because the police version and Jubi's version differ and no official document closes the gap. Those names were people, not figures. So we refused to tidy them up unilaterally. [31] [62]
Finally, we did not write that this ambush ends armed violence in Maybrat. One operations commander is dead, two battalion commanders are dead, two bodies are still in the river, and dozens of others in the forest have not laid down their weapons. What ended this week was the hunt for one man. The group's history stands, and the state's duty to protect civilians in Maybrat's villages is not finished either. [45] [46]
Police named Manfret Fatem a fugitive in the murder of a civilian in East Aifat district, Maybrat.
The Kisor military sub-district post in Maybrat was attacked: four army soldiers died, two were wounded. Police put 17 people on a wanted list, including Manfret Fatem.
Soldiers of the 20/PPA engineering battalion building the Fankario-Kamat bridge in East Aifat were shot at: Sergeant Miskel Rumbiak died, four were wounded.
Fourteen workers of the Trans Bintuni-Maybrat road project were attacked in Moskona: four died, one went missing, two heavy machines and three trucks were burned.
The Bousha post in South Aifat was attacked on Christmas Day: one soldier of the 133/Yudha Sakti battalion died, one was wounded.
Thirty Maybrat residents who had joined Manfret Fatem's group returned to Indonesia, saying they joined after being intimidated with weapons.
TPNPB urged civilians in Sungai Rawara to evacuate and described the shooting of Komnas HAM Papua head Frits Ramandey as justified.
Marines retook Muara Oasin in South Aifat from Manfret Fatem's camp; The Jakarta Post described the group as terrorizing residents, attacking military posts and ambushing vehicles.
The Sorry village observation post in South Aifat was attacked: two navy soldiers died, one was wounded, two firearms and 75 rounds were taken.
The Southwest Papua regional police named seven suspects and fugitives, including Manfret Fatem, Anton Fatem and Yohanes Ky.
Ten members of Kodap IV Sorong Raya returned to Indonesia and handed over six firearms.
Three civilians in Ainod village, Maybrat, suffered gunshot wounds. According to the victims' testimony the shooters were uniformed personnel; the case is still under investigation and is not counted as a crime by the armed group.
One leader of the Sorong Raya armed group surrendered at a TNI post in Maybrat.
Komnas HAM facilitated the return of dozens of women and children from Maybrat who had stayed in the forest for about six years.
A number of displaced Maybrat residents returned to their village.
Two leaders of Kodap IV Sorong Raya, Arso Aisnak and Yohanes KY, died in a firefight in the forests of Aifat district.
TPNPB issued a mourning statement for Arso Aisnak and Yohanes KY, claiming one of them died after being tortured in a security vehicle. The claim was not verified by independent parties.
Ambush in the forest north of Kamat village, East Aifat district: Manfret Fatem died at the scene; Anton Fatem and Yesias Fatem died fleeing toward the Kamundan River, their bodies believed drowned. An AK-101, a Caracal, dozens of rounds and a Morning Star flag were seized.
Kogabwilhan III said the ambush was supported by A1-rated intelligence from BIN. The Maybrat police chief said the situation was conducive and no personnel were added.
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