2016 Samarinda Church Bombing

On November 13, 2016, an explosion occurred at approximately 10:10 WITA in front of Oikumene Church on Dr. Cipto Mangunkusumo Road in Sengkotek, Loa Janan Ilir, Samarinda, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The blast happened as a prayer service had just ended and crowds, including children playing outside, were exiting the church. According to prosecutors, a man named Juhanda had traveled to the church by motorbike carrying a bag of black explosive powder and a fuse, intending to cause mass casualties. The device instead detonated when he fell from his motorbike in front of the church. Four toddlers, aged two to four years old, were injured in the explosion. Juhanda fled the scene but was caught by locals and churchgoers after falling into the Mahakam River.

Emergency responders, including firefighters, the Indonesian National Police, and a bomb disposal unit, were dispatched to the scene. The injured children were taken to I.A. Moeis Hospital, Samarinda's main hospital, with two described as critically injured. On November 14, 2016, one of the victims, two-year-old Olivia Intan Marbun Banjarnahor, died of her wounds, becoming the sole fatality of the attack.

Police identified the perpetrator as Juhanda, who had been released from prison only months before the attack. He had previously been convicted in 2011 for an attempted attack on the Christ Cathedral in Jakarta and for a series of "book bomb" attacks targeting activists, receiving a sentence of three years and six months from a Jakarta civil court on February 29, 2012. He was released in July 2014 under an Eid Al-Fitr remission and subsequently joined a group identified by police as JAD (Jamaah Ansharut Daulah) in East Kalimantan, reportedly linked to another group capable of bringing weapons from the Philippines. Witnesses reported seeing Juhanda near the church shortly before the attack wearing a T-shirt reading "Jihad, Way of life."

On September 25, 2017, Juhanda was sentenced to life imprisonment. Four others, all accused of belonging to the JAD group, were convicted alongside him and received sentences ranging from six to seven years.

The bombing prompted swift condemnation from Indonesian religious and political figures, including Nahdlatul Ulama, the Indonesian Ulema Council, President Joko Widodo, and National Police Chief Tito Karnavian. Security measures were increased at churches in Samarinda, Medan, and Yogyakarta. Vigils were held in Jakarta, Samarinda, Pontianak, Manado, and other cities, and the hashtag #RIPIntan circulated widely on Indonesian social media following news of Olivia Intan's death. The attack was noted as the second church-related terror incident in Indonesia in 2016, following an August 2016 attack in Medan, and the second terror attack in the country within less than a month.