Monitor says Indonesia fires have burned nearly two million hectares

Jakarta: Indonesian wildfires that have caused a regional haze crisis burned more than 1.9 million hectares in the first nine months of 2026, a monitor analysing satellite data said on Monday.

The report came as Indonesian officials said they had accepted help from neighbours Malaysia and Singapore to combat the blazes.

"We've already responded to the aid proposal... they (Malaysia) will be assisting with three aircraft and 52 personnel," Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman told reporters in Jakarta.

Malaysia had made repeated offers of help to combat the fires that have sent air pollution levels soaring in its own capital and others in the region.

Dudung said Singapore will also provide assistance, without giving any details.

New figures from deforestation monitoring site Nusantara Atlas showed an area nearly 12 times larger than London has burned from January to the end of September, most of it as drought took hold from June, exacerbated by a strong El Nino cycle.

Indonesia's government has not provided official figures since announcing 202,000 hectares had been razed by the end of July.

Nusantara Atlas founder David Gaveau said the true scale of the burning was likely higher than the 1,916,588 hectares his organisation has detected.

The calculation had been affected by heavy haze from the fires that obscured satellite images at times, among other factors.

Even so, Nusantara Atlas data shows the area burned was 38 percent higher than at the same point in 2019, another calamitous year for wildfires.

Forestry Ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi told AFP the government was still calculating the total burnt area and said the Nusantara Atlas data "cannot be readily confirmed".

President Prabowo Subianto ordered on Monday a "massive deployment" of resources to tackle the blazes, according to the government.