JAKARTA: Environmental groups raised concerns Thursday over a $6 billion Indonesian EV battery megaproject backed by Chinese giant CATL which is set to open on a once-pristine island, as Jakarta exploits its huge supply of nickel.

Indonesia is both the world’s largest nickel producer and home to the biggest-known reserves, and a 2020 export ban has spurred a domestic industrial boom.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will inaugurate the project — also backed by China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and Indonesia’s state-owned Antam — in the east of Halmahera in Indonesia’s Maluku islands on Sunday.

The complex will encompass a process from nickel mining to production of cathodes, state news agency Antara reported.

But NGOs say Indonesia and the Chinese firms involved have not given assurances about environmental protections at the site, located just kilometers from a huge industrial park where spikes in pollution and deforestation have been reported.

“CATL, Huayou Cobalt, PT Antam... must commit to respecting the rights of local communities and the environment before breaking ground,” said Brad Adams, executive director at Climate Rights International, in a statement.

“Communities are repressed, forests are cleared, and pollution goes unaddressed with impunity. This is a chance for the Prabowo government to show that it has learned from those failures.”

The presidential office did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

Halmahera hosts the world’s largest nickel mine by production Weda Bay, where operations have grown and sparked reports of widespread environmental damage.

Greenpeace Indonesia said the new project carried “great responsibilities” and the environment and locals “must not take a back seat” to powering electric vehicles.

“If the environment and the rights of our most vulnerable people are not prioritized now... we will all pay a high price through worsening biodiversity and climate crises,” Arie Rompas, forest campaign team leader at Greenpeace, told AFP.

A CRI report this month warned the Indonesian government was allowing environmental damage to go unchecked around Weda Bay.

An AFP report last month detailed how the home of the nomadic Hongana Manyawa tribe was being eaten away by the mine.

QUITO: Ecuador’s president announced Wednesday that the country’s most-wanted fugitive, Los Choneros gang leader “Fito,” had been recaptured over a year after his escape from prison triggered a wave of violence.

“We have done our part to proceed with Fito’s extradition to the United States, we are awaiting their response,” Daniel Noboa wrote on X.

Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, known as Fito, escaped custody in Ecuador in early 2024 and American prosecutors charged him, in absentia, with seven counts of cocaine distribution, conspiracy and firearms-related crimes, including weapons smuggling.

Macias Villamar’s January 2024 escape resulted in a surge of gang-related violence in Ecuador that lasted days and left about 20 people dead.

Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency in nearly a third of its provinces to quell the violence, but the drug lord was at-large until Wednesday’s announcement.

The months-long manhunt ended with the president stating Fito was in the custody of special military forces fighting narcotics trafficking.

The army and police reported that he was captured during a 10-hour operation in Manta, a fishing port in western Ecuador considered a stronghold for his gang.

Fito’s hideout evoked scenes from a movie thriller — local media reported that officers lifted a trap door in floor tiles of a luxury home to discover the outlaw hiding in a bunker.

The US Embassy congratulated Quito on the arrest, posting in Spanish on its X account that Washington “supports Ecuador in its efforts to combat transnational crime for the security of the region.”

Ecuador, once a peaceful haven between the world’s two top cocaine exporters Colombia and Peru, has seen violence erupt in recent years as enemy gangs vie for control and establish ties to Mexican and Colombian cartels.

Macias Villamar is the leader of Los Choneros, the leading criminal gang in a country plagued by organized crime.

Gang wars largely played out inside the country’s prisons, where Macias Villamar wielded immense control.

He had been held since 2011, serving a 34-year sentence for organized crime, drug trafficking and murder.

When he escaped, Macias Villamar was also considered a suspect in ordering the assassination of presidential candidate and anti-corruption crusader Fernando Villavicencio.

In the hours after the drug lord’s escape, prison riots broke out and four police officers were taken hostage, where one was forced to read a threatening message to Noboa.

Armed men wearing balaclavas also took over a television station during a live broadcast, forcing the terrified crew to the ground and firing shots.

Soon after, Noboa announced the country was in a state of “internal armed conflict” and ordered the military and tanks into the streets to “neutralize” the gangs.

US prosecutors allege his gang worked with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel to control key drug trafficking routes between South America and the United States.

Ecuador’s government had offered a $1 million reward for information leading to his capture.

If convicted, Fito faces life in prison.