Indonesia chokes in smoke

PAKENBARU, Indonesia (AFP) — Hundreds held a mass prayer for rain in a smoke-filled Indonesian city on Friday, desperately hoping that downpours will extinguish forest fires and wash away toxic haze covering wide swathes of the country that has forced mass school closures.

Illegal fires to clear land for farming are raging on Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo islands with firefighters battling round the clock through charred forests, and water-bombing helicopters deployed to douse the flames.

Dense smoke has blanketed Pekanbaru, a provincial capital on Sumatra, leaving the sky dark even at midday and residents fearing for their health.

Around 1,000 Pekanbaru residents — many dressed in white Muslim robes with rudimentary face masks — held a prayer Friday in an open field as a thick, acrid fog drifted around them.

“I’m praying so that the rain will come immediately and this smog will be gone soon,” said retired 57-year-old civil servant Rahmad, who goes by one name.

“It’s been really bad for the past month — I can’t breathe if I don’t wear a mask. Some of my neighbours have gotten really sick,” he told AFP.

Friday is a holy day in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority country, where forest fires are an annual problem but have been worsened this year by particularly dry weather.