Aceh, officially the Province of Aceh, is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northern end of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west, Strait of Malacca to the northeast, as well bordering the province of North Sumatra to the east, and shares maritime borders with Malaysia and Thailand to the east, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India to the north. Granted a special autonomous status, Aceh is a religiously conservative territory and the only Indonesian province practicing Sharia law officially. There are ten indigenous ethnic groups in this region, the largest being the Acehnese people, accounting for approximately 70% of the region's population of about 5.5 million people in mid-2023. Its area is comparable to Croatia or Togo.
The Free Aceh Movement was a separatist group seeking independence for the Aceh region of Sumatra, Indonesia. GAM fought against Indonesian government forces in the Aceh insurgency from 1976 to 2005. Estimates of the death toll total over 15,000 people killed.
The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) was deployed by the European Union after the "Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement" had been signed on 15 August 2005 in Helsinki, Finland. The AMM is one of many missions under the EU's Common Security and Defence Policy.
Hasan Muhammad di Tiro, was the founder of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), an organisation which attempted to separate Aceh from Indonesia from the 1970s. It surrendered its separatist goals and agreed to disarm as agreed to in the Helsinki peace deal of 2005. He was the maternal great-grandson of Tengku Cik di Tiro, an Indonesian national hero who was killed fighting the Dutch in 1891. In 2010 he obtained his Indonesian citizenship back shortly before his death.
Regional elections were held in Aceh on 11 December 2006 after a peace agreement had been signed between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement on 15 August 2005, ending the Insurgency in Aceh.
Irwandi Yusuf is an Indonesian politician who was the governor of Aceh. He was re-elected Governor in early 2017 after serving an earlier term between 2006 and 2012.
Pidie Regency is a regency of Aceh Special region, in Indonesia. It is located in the north of the island of Sumatra, in Western Indonesia, bordered by the Malacca Strait and Pidie Jaya Regency in the north, Aceh Besar Regency in the west, Bireuen Regency in the northeast, and Aceh Jaya Regency in the south. The regency covers an area of 3,184.46 square kilometres and had a population of 379,108 people at the 2010 Census and 435,275 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 448,085 - comprising 223,208 males and 224,877 females. Pidie was the largest rice-producing area of Aceh province, producing some 20% of its total output.
The insurgency in Aceh, officially designated the Rebellion in Aceh by the Indonesian government, was a conflict fought by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) between 1976 and 2005, with the goal of making the province of Aceh independent from Indonesia. The aftermath of a strong military offensive in 2003 and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami brought a peace agreement and an end to the insurgency.
The Aceh Party is a regional political party in Indonesia. It contested the 2009 elections in the province of Aceh, and is the largest party in the Aceh provincial legislature.
Mustafa Abubakar is an Indonesian politician and formerly governor of the province of Aceh. Mustafa was appointed as the State Minister for State Enterprises in the Second United Indonesia Cabinet, which was announced on 21 October 2009 following the re-election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Mustafa was brought into the cabinet after reforming the Indonesian Bureau of Logistics (Bulog), whose previous Chairman, Widjanarko Puspoyo, had been involved in a corruption scandal.
Hajji Azwar Abubakar is an Indonesian politician who served as Minister of State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform from 2011 to 2014. Previously, he served as Acting Governor of Aceh from 2004 to 2005 and Vice Governor of Aceh from 2000 to 2004.
Zaini Abdullah is an Indonesian politician and former separatist activist of the Free Aceh Movement in Indonesia who was elected as the governor of the province of Aceh in the 2012 election for a five-year period from 2012 to 2017. Elected with 56% of the vote, Zaini Abdullah is the second governor directly chosen by the electors of Aceh since the granting of restricted autonomy to the area by the Indonesian government in 2005. His predecessor Irwandi Yusuf, who was elected in 2006 for the period from 2007 to 2012, was the first governor chosen in the province by direct elections.
The Nanggroe Aceh Party or Aceh State Party is a regional political party in Indonesia. It was established as National Aceh Party, as a result of a split within the Aceh Party triggered by disagreements over the candidate for governor in the 2012 Aceh gubernatorial election. It was founded by Irwandi Yusuf, who was Aceh's governor between 2007 and 2012. The party qualified to contest the 2014 elections in Aceh, and won 4.7 percent of the vote, winning three seats in the provincial legislature.
Muzakir Manaf, popularly known as Mualem, is an Indonesian politician and former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerilla fighter who served as the vice governor of Aceh between 2012 and 2017. Leading the movement's guerilla wing following the death of his predecessor, he was its leader at the end of the conflict and later founded the Aceh Party, becoming its first and current chairman.
Nurdin bin Ismail Amat, better known as Din Minimi, is a former militant of Free Aceh Movement who led an armed band based in Aceh during the 2010s.
Soedarmo is an Indonesian military officer and bureaucrat who was the Director General of Politics and General Government from 2015 to 2019. Due to his office in the Ministry of Home Affairs, he held acting governorships in Aceh and Papua.
Saleh Manaf is an Indonesian politician and bureaucrat. He was a civil servant at the National Land Agency before being elected as Bekasi's regent in 2003. He was dismissed by the minister of home affairs in 2006.
The 2024 Acehnese gubernatorial election will be held on 27 November 2024 as part of nationwide local elections to elect the governor of Aceh for a five-year term. The previous election was held in 2017.
