They carry no weapons, take no side, and were never asked for consent. Eight years of records on attacks against civilians in Tanah Papua show one pattern: those who die are the people simply doing their jobs.
On 21 March 2025, six teachers were killed in Anggruk district, Yahukimo regency. The attack targeted a school building. The perpetrators claimed the victims were intelligence agents. None of them was ever identified as a member of the security forces by any official source. Afterwards, several schools in the area ceased operating and part of the teaching staff left the district.
On 15 September 2026, Aris Sanda, a public-transport driver from Toraja, was found burned to death inside his vehicle on the Wamena–Nduga stretch of the Trans-Papua road. He was working when he was shot. TPNPB-OPM claimed responsibility. A road built to connect villages has turned into a front line, and the drivers who use it carry the risk.
On 2 August 2026, four workers on a national road project run by contractor PT Sutan Harauli Jaya were shot in the Kali Kabur area of Woniki district, Tolikara regency. Three of the victims were indigenous Papuans. The perpetrators declared the attack the start of war in Tolikara. Four people building a road for their own districts died for doing that work.
On 20 July 2026, three civilians were executed beside the Trans-Papua road in Seradala district, Yahukimo. The victims were a married couple, Kumis Kogoya and his wife, and a woman of the Unaukam people. The killing was recorded on video and circulated widely. Three days later, the body-recovery team was attacked on its way to the site, and a woman of the same people remains unaccounted for.
The pattern is not new. On 2 December 2018, nineteen workers on the Trans-Papua bridge project of PT Istaka Karya were shot dead in Nduga regency. Eleven came from Tana Toraja. The perpetrators claimed the victims were soldiers; the company and authorities confirmed they were civilian workers. Survivors described fleeing into the forest barefoot.
Since 7 February 2023, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens of Susi Air has been held hostage in Nduga regency. The hostage-taking is not about one man alone: pioneer flights to several districts stopped, and supplies now travel by risky land routes. Cement and building-material prices reportedly multiplied. Residents with no part in the conflict carry its cost.
The effect on basic services is measurable. Attacks on teachers and health workers have left some health posts without a single nurse, while patients needing referral must cross road stretches that have been shooting sites. Children walk hours for the same lesson, and some have stopped attending altogether.
What is least often recorded is who bears the cost. In the open record from 2018 to 2026, most of the dead were not combatants: teachers, drivers, road workers, farmers, women and children. They carry no weapons, have no way to leave their villages, and were never consulted when the conflict was decided to continue.
Every claim in this piece can be traced to the reporting and official statements listed under sources. Where figures are still disputed between parties, we mark them as under review rather than final fact.