An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.4 hit Papua’s capital city Jayapura on Thursday afternoon, killing four people, injuring at least five and forcing 700 to flee, emergency officials said.

The shallow earthquake with an epicenter of 10 km deep and located at coordinates 2.60 south and 140.66 east struck at 3.28pm.

Officlals said at least five houses were damaged by the earthquake — three of them heavily and two moderately.

In addition, a cafe collapsed and fell into the sea, while the building of Jayapura’s Dok 2 Hospital, two churches, a mosque, and a hotel were also damaged.

The earthquake collapsed the top part of the Cendrawasih University postgraduate building.

The Jayapura Mall building in the city centre also suffered cracks on one side of the building, and the roof of the 4th floor collapsed.

“As an effort to handle the disaster emergency, the Jayapura City Disaster Management Agency together with the Papua Province BPBD and related agencies have set up emergency tents, provided evacuation sites, public kitchens and basic support for the evacuees,” spokesperson Abdul Muhari said.

“The urgent needs are emergency tents and generators for electricity.”

Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the covid outbreak in the Marshall Islands a Public Health Emergency.

A total of 571 new omicron cases of the virus were recorded in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

Three people have died and more than 10 percent of the population in the capital Majuro have tested positive, according to the Marshall Islands Ministry of Health and Human Services.

The WHO has declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

All schools will be closed for the next two months, just one of the measures under the government’s disaster management plan.

The number of positive cases has skyrocketed from a handful on August 8 to more than 1000 by the weekend.

RNZ Pacific’s Marshall Islands correspondent Giff Johnson said the outbreak had led to staff shortages at many businesses.

“Everybody’s operation is affected. I went next door to buy some drinks and the owner is doing the cash register … all cashiers are out of action with covid. The Post Office had to close down because so many people came down with covid.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A former Fijian journalist, Iliesa Tora, said in his Facebook live video that explosions were heard and black clouds of smoke seen in the sky followed by abnormal tidal movements and large waves.

He said a similar incident had occurred several years ago but was not of the same magnitude.

Former Fiji journalist Iliesa Tora’s Facebook video feed on the tsunami.

“Something similar happened seven years ago, but it wasn’t this bad,” he said.

Tora said his family and others were advised to move to higher ground by local authorities.

“An explosion erupted from underneath the sea near Ha’apai and we were given a tsunami warning,” Tora added.

“All the roads in Nuku’alofa have been busy as authorities try to move us to a safer place.”

Tora said rocks showered through the area while they drove to safety.

“Small rocks from the volcanic eruption started to fall like rain as a result of what had happened.”

Fiji villagers flee tidal waves
In Fiji, villagers of Narikoso on Kadavu fled for safety to elevated areas on the island after huge tidal waves crashed into the village ground yesterday afternoon.

The highest point in the island is understood to be occupied by seven households who were relocated from the old village site in 2020.

Village spokesman Kelepi Saukitoga told The Fiji Times that they were hit by three tidal waves.

He said the whole village ground was underwater.

“It was shocking and the villagers were terrified,” he said.

Saukitoga said they heard rumbling sounds before the tidal waves crashed through their homes.

“We had to chase the children and everyone in the village to higher grounds for safety. Everyone was terrified of the events that transpired this afternoon [Saturday].

“We understand that this was caused by the volcanic eruption in Tonga.”

Luke Nacei is a Fiji Times journalist. Republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A new tsunami warning is now in force for all of Tonga following this evening’s violent eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai undersea volcano with tidal waves flooding the shoreline of the capital Nuku’alofa.

Parts of New Zealand and Samoa are also under tsunami warning, reports RNZ News.

The eruption came shortly after locals in Tongatapu reported a “deafening” sound of an eruption this afternoon. They also reported stones pouring down on the main island of Tongatapu.

No injuries or deaths have been reported.

Stay safe everyone ?? pic.twitter.com/OhrrxJmXAW

— Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau (@sakakimoana) January 15, 2022

Kaniva News correspondent in Tonga Patimiosi Ngūngūtau shared a photo of sea waves flowing inland.

He described the deafening sound as “weird”.

‘Rain of small black stones’
“It was a rain of small black stones and black ash,” he said.

He said they had evacuated to Liahona in the central south.

Ngūngūtau said ash not only covered vehicle screens but their impact sounded like they could break the screens.

Tonga Geological Services said at 1.45pm this afternoon satellite images captured this morning between showed volcanic eruption continuing, with ash emitted and detected at 7.20am this morning.

Tonga issues tsunami warning after undersea volcano erupts https://t.co/t2rjMNZb9Z

— ABC News (@abcnews) January 15, 2022

“This ash plume was due to an eruption that lasted 10 to 15 minutes and was drifting downwind to the east from Hunga. No further eruption has been detected since then,” it said.

“Near shore water turbulence caused by the eruption is expected to have ceased for all shores of Ha’apai and Tongatapu islands. It is advised that the public observe currents before entering the water.

“Owners of rainwater harvesting systems in all Tonga are advised to check for ashfall on your roofs for ash before reconnecting your guttering systems.

“Please clean if ashfall is evident. For locations of residents where the pungent smell of sulphur or ammonia is experienced please use breathing masks if helpful”.

BREAKING: The Pacific Island nation of Tonga is tonight the scene of a disaster after a tsunami struck. An underwater volcano erupted, plumes of smoke blacking out the sky and sending powerful waves through villages. https://t.co/wx2NZaxEPi @AlexLewisJourno #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/7Nng0zmT3d

— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) January 15, 2022

Flooded coastal roads
RNZ News reports tidal waves crossed the shoreline in Nuku’alofa and flooded coastal roads and properties.

There is panic and people are worried and uncertain what to do, RNZ Pacific reporters said.

The advisory for New Zealand’s north and east coast of the North Island and the Chatham Islands came around 8.45pm from NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency).

It said people in those areas might experience strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore.

People are being urged to stay away from beaches and shore areas until 4am tomorrow.

There was no need to evacuate other areas unless directly advised by local civil defence authorities.

Coastal inundation (flooding of land areas near the shore) is not expected as a result of this event.

King evacuated from palace
Kaniva News reports that Tonga’s King Tupou VI has been evacuated from the Royal Palace after the tsunami flooding.

“A convoy of police and troops rushed the king to the villa at Mataki’eua as residents headed for higher ground”, reports Fiji-based Islands Business magazine.

“Earlier, a series if explosions were heard as an undersea volcano erupted throwing clouds of ash into the sky.”

TVNZ 1News reports that the second eruption in as many days had sent ash, steam and gas 20 km into the air.

A journalist based in Nukuʻalofa told the channel the situation was “precarious”.

“You’ll forgive the wobble in my voice because we’ve had a very frightening hour,” she said.

Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Kaniva Tonga.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

On August 17, a 58-year-old man from Auckland became symptomatic and tested positive for covid-19. It was New Zealand’s first community case of the coronavirus in almost six months.

Within hours, the nation of five million moved into alert level four, part of its “go hard, go early” approach. All travel outside of people’s homes was forbidden, except to fetch supplies, visit pharmacies or exercise.

The country largely ground to a halt.

“We have seen the dire consequences of taking too long to act in other countries, not least our neighbours,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, while announcing the cabinet’s decision to impose a lockdown that evening.

Within a few days, one case had grown to 21 cases. After a week, to 148 cases. By August 31, the cluster contained 612 cases.

Snap lockdown
One month after imposing the snap lockdown, New Zealand has bent the curve and may be able to eliminate an outbreak of the potent delta variant of COVID-19 – though it is no sure thing.

As of September 20, some 1051 people in Auckland and 17 people in the capital city, Wellington, have been infected with the virus, of whom 694 have recovered.

Contact tracers have methodically identified tens of thousands of contacts – and hundreds of locations of interest – part of an updated track-and-trace system repurposed to cast a much wider net around the far more transmissible delta variant.

The outbreak, now spread across 20 subclusters, 10 of which have been epidemiologically linked, presents the most serious challenge to elimination that New Zealand has faced so far. With its fragmented public health system under intense strain from decades of under-funding, any unchecked spread of the delta variant would see hospitals rapidly overwhelmed.

But New Zealanders rallied behind the restrictions, sticking to their “bubbles”, masking up and watching patiently as cases peaked, then began to decline – though the outbreak’s tail is proving persistent.

If the country does eliminate this outbreak, it would once again validate the “go hard, go early” approach that officials have taken over the past 18 months.

With Auckland moving yesterday to the more permissive alert level three, case numbers over the coming weeks will be closely watched for any sign of uncontained spread.

Entitlement and denunciation
Yet, as with previous outbreaks, the clamour from critics of the government started almost immediately, a chorus of whinge.

Business special interests laundered their messaging through an uncritical media – “certainty” they chanted, while pressuring for a move down alert levels.

“We also know that in lockdown Treasury has forecast it to cost the country NZ$1.45 billion per week – and that’s just the economic impact,” Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson told broadcaster Newstalk ZB.

Incredibly, less than a week into lockdown, Export New Zealand executive director Catherine Beard complained to Stuff, the country’s most popular news website, that the business environment was getting “tough” for exporters, while lobbying for more managed isolation spots for business travellers – or self-isolation.

“Some of these are multimillion-dollar deals, so the situation is very stressful,” she said.

Some in the hospitality sector complained about limits on gatherings and threatened to withhold tax, while demanding “targeted” assistance from the government.

“Now it’s 100 percent [Ministry of] Health running the show,” said Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Julie White, according to Stuff. “No one is advising them commercially.”

Most New Zealanders would, presumably, prefer that the Health Ministry – as opposed to hospitality interest groups – responds to the threat presented by a lethal, airborne pathogen.

‘Glacial’ pace criticised
The “glacial” pace of the country’s vaccine rollout was also riffed off in headline after headline.

Perhaps, as the political opposition and reporters contend, the rollout has been “sluggish”.

Perhaps the government could have instructed the medical regulator Medsafe to conduct a less rigorous assessment of the Pfizer vaccine, under emergency protocols.

“Another [possibility] is,” Craig McCulloch, Radio New Zealand’s deputy political editor speculated, “that the government’s negotiators came late to the party, did a poor job and got a raw deal.”

Or perhaps soaring global demand amid the pandemic, Pfizer’s finite ability to supply vaccines to a vast suite of countries and New Zealand’s limited purchasing power and largely covid-free status explains the “delay”.

Certainly, the World Health Organisation has described vaccine hoarding by wealthy nations as approaching a “catastrophic moral failure”.

When Pfizer became able to deliver large shipments midway through July, New Zealand saw a dramatic scale-up in the vaccination programme, as officials had promised for months.

Rollout a success story
If anything, the nation’s rollout — a massive logistical undertaking — has largely been a success story, conducted in an environment of incredible uncertainty and reliant upon an already stretched workforce.

It has additionally played a key role in supporting vaccination efforts in the Cook Islands.

As of September 20, some 4,711,410 doses of the vaccine have been administered, tracking close to supply, with 1,618,673 people now fully vaccinated.

Amid the rising racket, the entitlement and denunciation, even commentators from abroad got in on the act.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson — agitating anti-lockdown sentiment — suggested that New Zealand provided a model for how his viewers would be subjugated by Joe Biden’s administration.

“How far can they go? […] A single covid case in New Zealand, not a death from covid, but a case of covid has shut down the entire country.”

Writing in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, one commentator called the outbreak “poetic justice” and claimed a “once-welcoming nation is turning into an isolated dystopia, where liberties are taken away in a heartbeat and outsiders are shunned”.

While these criticisms are couched in the language of defending civil liberties, they reduce to variants of the “learn to live with covid” argument.

Or put another way: “The cure cannot be worse than the disease”.

The economy must reign supreme, after all.

Sound familiar?

‘Needles in my eyes’
New Zealand’s elimination strategy relies on public buy-in. Recent polling shows that some 84 percent of the public supports the latest lockdown.

As with previous outbreaks, Ardern has used clear, empathetic language to reassure and unify an often politically divided nation. These briefings are held in Parliament’s theatrette and usually feature the Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

For many in New Zealand, the daily press briefings provide a detailed window into how authorities manage outbreaks and have been the most visible key to the elimination strategy’s success.

“To all Aucklanders, you have done an amazing job so far protecting yourselves, your family and your community,” Ardern said on September 13, while announcing that Auckland would stay in alert level four for another week. “We owe you a huge debt of gratitude … but the cases are telling us we have additional work to do.”

Voters rewarded Ardern’s Labour Party for this kind of humane approach and its exceptional management of the viral threat in the national elections last October, granting it an outright majority.

The political opposition judges these briefings a political threat, and routinely denigrates them as Ardern speaking from “The Podium of Truth”.

With the return of daily briefings on August 17, right-wing broadcasters and some journalists began to deride the briefings, at exactly the moment when trust in the authorities needed to be reinforced.

Undermining public perceptions
There is a difference between “holding power to account” and deliberately attempting, for purely partisan political reasons, to undermine public perceptions that the covid-19 response is being well managed.

“I tried, I really did, but I wanted to stick needles in my eyes by about four minutes in,” said Newstalk ZB’s Kate Hawkesby, the day after the return of the 1pm press conferences. “I’d forgotten how soul-destroying it is to be spoken to like a three-year-old.”

On the same station, Hawkesby’s husband, Mike Hosking, overdubbed turkey “gobbles” and truck horn sound effects onto an interview recorded with Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall.

Newstalk ZB’s political editor, Barry Soper, in a report about an Auckland man whose kidney surgery was postponed due to staffing shortages, loaded his story’s preamble with phrases like “their altar” and “practise what they preach”.

He also issued a remarkable dog-whistle to New Zealand’s far-right, the kind of people who believe Ardern – a fairly mild political centrist – is turning the country into a “communist dictatorship”.

“If you have ever wondered what it must have been like to live in a totalitarian state, then perhaps wonder no more.”

This nonsense went on and on.

Moaning media
Some press gallery reporters began to complain about the length of Ardern’s introductions, while Jason Walls, a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, took to Twitter to moan about Dr Bloomfield saying “finally” two times.

This speaks to how the media has fundamentally misunderstood what the briefings are: public service announcements.

They are for the public. Reporters are invited as a check and, as such, should resist the urge to demand a say in how these announcements are structured.

Even The New York Times managed to launder messaging that targeted the briefings, quoting former National Party staffer and political commentator Ben Thomas – who appears fixated on denigrating Dr Bloomfield.

“He [Dr Bloomfield] has … a cult-like following,” said Thomas. “The country has a huge kind of parasocial devotion to him, which is very new to New Zealand.”

Apparently, Thomas has not heard of Michael Joseph Savage, who founded New Zealand’s welfare state in the 1930s and whose framed photo hung in homes throughout the country for decades.

Regardless, all of this is a fairly obvious partisan political effort, driven by both ideology and market dynamics.

Many reporters and commentators at New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME), which owns The New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB, seem unable to accept that their preferred political tribe is no longer in power.

More critically, in an age where the news media increasingly attempts to attract subscribers by catering to their social and political values, NZME appears to be ring-fencing centre-to-far-right eyeballs.

It is, essentially, becoming New Zealand’s Fox News.

A brave new world
The sense in New Zealand is that this may be the last of the nation’s sledgehammer-style lockdowns, though one hopes officials do not retire lockdowns altogether.

The goal is to get as many people as possible vaccinated, assess the impact of opening up, and then tentatively start easing some border restrictions, if possible.

No doubt, certain industries – tourism, hospitality, horticulture, media – will continue to apply relentless pressure.

Yet, when the nation reconnects more fully to the networks of global trade and travel, the super-highways of hyper-globalisation that have spread disease and death around the world, when the inevitable outbreaks come, there will be a toll.

Glen Johnson is an independent New Zealand journalist who worked as a foreign correspondent for 11 years, predominantly out of the Middle East and North Africa. His work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Seattle Times, Vice, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Reuters, Le Monde Diplomatique, Balkan Insight, Al Jazeera and The New Zealand Herald, among others. His article was first published by Al Jazeera English and is republished with the permission of the author.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it is hard not to feel like New Zealand is having a run of bad luck, with residents waking up today to a tsunami alert amid the covid-19 restrictions.

The tsunami alert was triggered after three quakes overnight – the first of 7.3 magnitude struck about 2.30am just off the east coast of the North Island.

The second was 7.4 magnitude near Kermadec Islands at 6.41am, and the third was a magnitude 8.1 quake near Kermadec Islands at 8.28am.

At 3.45pm, the National Emergency Management Agency cancelled all of the tsunami warnings.

Emergency Management Minister Kiritapu Allan said there are no reports of damage at this stage to property, but the focus had been on evacuation and further assessment would follow.

The prime minister said HMNZS Canterbury was due to be at the Kermadec Islands to carry GNS scientists, Sir Peter Blake Trust scholarship holders, and a group of iwi but the covid-19 alert level changes on Sunday had prevented that deployment from happening.

“Otherwise we would have had people on the island at the time and I can’t imagine what that experience would’ve been like,” she said.

Possible ‘dangerous situation’
Ardern said what would have been “a very distressing if not dangerous situation” had been prevented in this instance.

She said when she had felt the earthquake she had checked in with the minister at 2.29am.

Asked about what she thought given the country was dealing with a pandemic and an earthquake, she said: “Bugger it, pretty much what everyone else thought at that time.

“But this is as the minister has said, we are the shaky isles and what we’ve got to do is make sure no matter what experience we have we do everything we can to prepare so that in the future if we have another experience that we are even better prepared than we were.

“As I walked into the Beehive bunker, where we undertake our Civil Defence emergency co-ordination, two things struck me. First that it’s hard not to feel like our country is having a run of bad luck when you have an earthquake, tsunami alert and pandemic to contend with all in one day.”

But she said walking past images of past natural disasters plastered on the walls to the bunker, she realised the efforts of Civil Defence teams.

“We have had our share of tough moments in this country, but within that we have always been blessed incredible people who work in our emergency system.”

Allan said there had been multiple aftershocks after the initial quakes.

Auckland to move to level 2
Meanwhile, Auckland will move to alert level 2 and the rest of New Zealand will move to level 1 at 6am on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, reports RNZ News.

Ardern announced the move while speaking to media after a cabinet meeting to decide on alert level changes.

This will be reconsidered with a plan to move Auckland down a level at the start of the next weekend if possible, she said.

“If you are sick, stay at home, don’t go to work or school and don’t socialise. Keep track of where you’ve been at all times.”

The restriction of 100 people at events will be in place.

No new cases of covid-19 have been reported in the community for the fifth day in a row or in managed isolation today.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As Papua New Guinea’s capital continues to record an increase in covid-19 cases, with seven new positive cases recorded on Friday, another crisis is looming at the National Referral Hospital.

Port Moresby General Hospital Emergency Ward (PomGen) is currently under immense stress as covid-19 tests take place there.

The ward is in chaos as patients with life threatening injuries and medical conditions wait hours to be treated.

READ MORE: PNG imposes nine new covid control measures as cases climb

Eye witness reports have confirmed that doctors and nurses are refusing to attend to emergency cases until the individual is first tested for covid-19.

The emergency theatre that deals with urgent cases has been closed due to fears of covid-19 among doctors and nurses.

EMTV has been told that for some emergency cases this is leading to death.

Appendix cases that went to PomGen this week were told that the theatre was closed and the staff on duty were not sure whether the surgeon would be able to attend to the cases.

Appendix burst
One patient’s appendix eventually burst while waiting to be served.

It raises a question on what exactly is happening at the emergency ward at PomGen?

In a leaked letter addressed to Port Moresby General chief executive and management, nurses at the Emergency Department refused to work, stating that covid-19 protocols in place were not effective.

The nurses said that initial procedures of patience testing at the front triage before being moved to the Rita Flynn isolation clinic or the emergency ward for further treatment were not carried out.

The nurses of the Emergency Department called on the management to fumigate the whole department, establish proper facilities for covid-19 patients, send all nursing staff home for an indefinite period, and a response by management.

In a social media post, PomGen replied to the nurses’ leaked document stating that the hospital chief executive officer, Dr Paki Molumi and acting Director Medical Services Dr Kone Sobi met with the Emergency Department doctors and nurses at 7.30am today to address the challenges after two of their staff members tested positive for covid-19 while treating their sick patients who were also positive.

Dr Molumi called on the ED staff not to be swayed away by covid-19 as the normal non-covid emergencies would kill more patients.

‘Save more lives’
“Our challenge is to continue to attend to all normal emergencies to save more lives at the same time ensure we and our patients are safe from covid-19,” he said.

EMTV understands that Emergency Department staff are not in full PPE equipment. Only those carrying out covid-19 testing are in full PPE attire.

There is uncertainty about knowing who has covid-19 and this can lead to nurses and doctors being fully exposed to the virus. Other patients in the emergency ward can also be exposed.

Current procedures in place at Port Moresby General Hospital emergency ward is costing lives, as fear of covid-19 is causing more deaths than the virus itself in Port Moresby and in the country.

EMTV News has requested a response from Deputy Pandemic Controller Dr Paison Dakulala on the situation at Port Moresby General Hospital and was still awaiting a response when this article was published.

In an earlier story, EMTV News reports that Dr Dakulala has appealed to Papua New Guineans to take health measures against covid-19 seriously as PNG’s cases increased to 39.

Dr Dakulala made this call yesterday while announcing seven new cases of covid-19 confirmed within the previous 24 hours in the National Capital District.

Four health workers positive
Out of the seven, four are health workers.

“We cannot afford to play around. The cases are being reported every day now. The new cases were confirmed at midday today and they are now all at the Rita Flynn isolation facility,” said Dr Dakulala.

Of the seven new cases, four are considered mild while only one had difficulties in breathing so was put on oxygen but is now improving.

All are Papua New Guineans except for an expatriate employed with a government organisation.

Dr Dakulala said one of the cases is a staff person with the National Department of Health. The NDoH headquarters at Aopi Building was going through a decontamination process.

The building will be open on Wednesday.

“Rita Flynn has a 72-bed capacity. When we reach the capacity, we may have to consider other possibilities, including home quarantine,’’ said Dr Dakulala.

Monitored cases mild
He said the majority of the 24 cases currently being monitored at Rita Flynn facility were mild cases.

Dr Dakulala said that quarantine and contact tracing measures had been initiated and contacts of positive cases were being advised to be home quarantined and not to move around for 14 days.

They have been advised to call the hotline 1800200 should they experience any symptoms of covid-19 such as fevers or body aches or flu.

“If they are feeling unwell they only have to call the hotline and we will send response teams to their residence to assist. Please comply with all covid-19 health protocols. Stay at home. Do not move around.

“Help us stop the spread,” added Dr Dakulala.

As of yesterday, PNG had tested a total of 9885 people for covid-19 since the response began in January.

Out of this figure, 39 had tested positive and more new cases are expected as tests are being scaled up not just in NCD, but throughout the country.

Furthermore, there are currently 535 tests pending results – 300 of these samples are at a laboratory in Brisbane and the other 235 are in Singapore.

The Pacific Media Centre republishes selected EMTV News stories with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Barbara Dreaver, TVNZ’s Pacific correspondent

With 93 people still missing, the first reports of survival – and loss – are starting to emerge from the sunken ferry MV Butiraoi in Kiribati.

In the first interview with Radio Kiribati, one of only seven survivors Temake Ioane told how he had to watch his two children dying over several days.

Ioane said there were three explosions on the 17m catamaran and the third broke it in two.

LISTEN: Radio Kiribati Online

Many did not survive the sinking, but those who did managed to clamber on to three boats.

However, Ioane said the rubber boat was so overloaded it split in half, leaving only two small dinghies.

The father of two said he managed to get his two children on board one of them – along with more than 20 others who either were on board on clinging to the side.

Only seven survivors have been found and family members have attended a church service in Auckland.

Clinging to boat for 6 days
Speaking in I-Kiribati, Ioane, who himself was clinging to the side of the boat for six days, said the ones that floated alongside the boats were the first to die “we prayed with them until they died”.

It was on the sixth day, without food and water, that the old women and children on board the boat started to die.

The first was his three-year-old son Tauti Temwake and then his eight-year-old daughter Remwati. Others were delirious from lack of water and jumped off the dinghy thinking they were going to buy food, he said.

On the January 28, 10 days after the ferry set sail from the island of Nonouti, only seven survivors including Ioane were found by the NZ Air force P3 Orion.

Ioane said he last saw the other remaining dinghy with the captain on board and other survivors drifting towards land after the ferry sank.

They have not been found.

Barbara Dreaver is TVNZ’s 1 News Pacific correspondent. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz