In one of the worst separatist attacks in Indonesia’s restive province of Papua, 31 construction workers and a soldier were shot dead on Sunday and Monday.
The men worked for state-owned contractor Istaka Karya, building bridges and roads in the impoverished region.
Twenty-four were killed when gunmen stormed a bridge construction site in a remote mountainous village in Nduga district, on the western half of New Guinea island.
Eight fled to the house of a local politician, but the gunmen came and killed seven of them on Monday, reports South China Morning Post.
Security forces were trying to recover the bodies today, but they were being guarded by the separatists.
After Dutch colonial rule, Papua declared itself an independent nation in 1961 but Indonesia took control of the region by force in 1963.
Image: Looking down on Mulia City, in Indonesia’s Papua province on the western half of New Guinea island (Frans Huby/Creative Commons/CC BY 3.0)
