On 28 September 2018, a shallow, large earthquake struck in the neck of the Minahasa Peninsula, Indonesia, with its epicentre located in the mountainous Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi. The magnitude 7.5 quake was located 70 km (43 mi) away from the provincial capital Palu and was felt as far away as Samarinda on East Kalimantan and also in Tawau, Malaysia. This event was preceded by a sequence of foreshocks, the largest of which was a magnitude 6.1 tremor that occurred earlier that day.

Donggala Regency is a regency in the Central Sulawesi Province of Indonesia. It lies between 0° 30" north and 2°20" south latitude, and between 119° 45°" and 121° 45" east longitude, and covers a land area of 5,126.59 km2. It had a population of 277,236 at the 2010 Census and 300,436 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 308,301. The administrative capital of Donggala Regency is the town of Banawa, located a 30-minute drive (34 km) northwest from the city of Palu, the capital of the province.