West Aceh Regency is a regency  in the Aceh

Aceh

Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...

 province of Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

. The regency currently covers an area of 2927.95 square kilometres and according to the 2000 census had a population of 251,227 people. The seat of the regency government is at Meulaboh

Meulaboh

Meulaboh is the capital of West Aceh Regency, Indonesia. Meulaboh is among the hardest hit areas by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Being just 150 km from the epicenter of the earthquake, Meulaboh was hit by tsunami, leaving the estimated deaths of 40,000 people out of 120,000...

. It is a palm oil producing area. Some of the people of the regency are Minangkabau-descended Aneuk Jamee.

The regency is among the hardest-hit areas during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...

.

Administrative divisions

The regency is divided administratively into subdistricts

Subdistricts of Indonesia

In Indonesia, a kecamatan or district is a subdivision of a regency or of a city . A district is itself divided into kelurahan or administrative villages....

 (kecamatan):

• Arongan Lambalek (27 villages)
• Bubon (17 villages)
• Johan Pahlawan (21 villages)
• Kaway XVI (62 villages)
• Meureubo (26 villages)
• Pante Ceureumen (25 villages)
• Panton Reu (19 villages)
• Samatiga (32 villages)
• Sungai Mas (18 villages)
• Woyla (43 villages)
• Woyla Barat (24 villages)
• Woyla Timur (26 villages)