Thousands flee violence in Indonesia's Papua after boy shot dead

.Priest Amandus (right) gestures during a press conference about an ongoing conflict in Papua’s Intan Jaya where thousands fled to shelters after a two-year-old boy was killed in a firefight between government troops and independence-seeking rebels, at a church in Timika on Oct 31, 2021. - AFP

TRIMIKA, Indonesia (AFP): Church leaders in Indonesia's conflict-wracked Papua region called for calm Sunday (Oct 31) as thousands fled to shelters after a two-year-old boy was killed in a firefight between government troops and independence-seeking rebels.

The restive region at the easternmost edge of the South-East Asian archipelago has been the scene of intermittent clashes for decades in one of the world's longest-running insurgencies.