The Poso riots is a name given to a series of riots that occurred in Poso, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. This incident involved a group of Muslim and Christian in the region. The event is divided into three stages. The first Poso riot took place from December 25 to 29, 1998, and the second one was from April 17 to 21, 2000, and the final one was from 16 May to June 15, 2000.

On December 20, 2001, Malino I Declaration was signed between the two conflicting parties, initiated by then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the vice president Jusuf Kalla, officially concluding the conflict.

Central Sulawesi is a mountainous province situated between the southern part and the northern part of Sulawesi Island, including many islands nearby. Poso is one of eight other regencies established only after 2002 within the province. The capital of Poso Regency, Poso, is located in the bay, six hours southeast of the provincial capital, Palu. Currently, Poso Regency has a Muslim majority population in towns and coastal villages, and the majority of Protestant indigenous people in the highlands. Historically, in addition to the native Muslim population, there are many migrants of Bugis people from South Sulawesi, as well as from the northern Gorontalo region. There is also a long tradition of Arab traders living in the region, and their descendants play an important role in religious institutions and Islamic education in the area. The regency is also a focus of the government's transmigration program, which aimed at bringing citizens from densely populated areas, such as Muslim-dominated islands including Java and Lombok, as well as Hindu-dominated Balinese islands, to scarcely populated areas. The Muslim community here consists of indigenous people, official transmigrants, and economic migrants of various ethnic groups which have settled in this area for decades. Under these circumstances, in the late 1990s, the Muslim population became the majority in Poso Regency with percentages above 60 percent. On the other hand, ethno-linguistic groups that include Pamona, Mori, To Napu, Behoa and Bada inhabit the highlands of the regency. Many of these ethnic groups were formerly constituted dynasties and have histories of war between each others. The missionary activity of Netherlands began at the turn of the 20th century among these people, effectively proliferated Christianity. The city of Tentena became the economic and spiritual center for the Protestant population of Poso, and the center of the Central Sulawesi Christian Church, or the Synod. This small town lies to the north of Lake Poso in North Pamona Sub-Regency, one of the few sub-regencies with the majority population of Pamona people. Although the initial conflict centered on tensions between Muslim Bugis migrants and Protestant Pamona people, many other groups were drawn through their ethnic, cultural, or economic ties.

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