Category Archives: Vanuatu

Vanuatu officials turn to phone books and typewriters, one month after cyber attack

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Government websites and email still offline, leading to delays in payments and services across the country

One month after a cyber-attack brought down government servers and websites in Vanuatu, frustrated officials were still using private Gmail accounts, personal laptops, pen and paper, and typewriters to run the government of the prime minister, Ishmael Kalsakau, who came into office just a few days after the crash.

The malware attack on state networks has caused delays in communication and coordination in the Pacific island nation of 314,000 people and 80 islands.

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China holds talks on policing with Pacific island officials

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Two countries said their police chiefs were unable to attend video meeting chaired by Chinese and Solomon Islands ministers

China said it held a video meeting to discuss police cooperation with a group of Pacific island nations on Tuesday, however at least two nations told Reuters their ministers and police commissioners had been unavailable to attend.

China’s attempt to strike a security and trade deal with 10 Pacific island nations in May fuelled concern in Washington and Canberra about Beijing’s military ambitions in the region, and prompted a boost in western aid.

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Vanuatu to welcome first female MP since 2008 after snap election

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Vanuatu Election Commission yet to declare official results but Julia King likely to be lone female voice in 52-member parliament

Votes are still being counted in Vanuatu’s snap election, but with the preliminary votes tallied, one change seems certain: Vanuatu’s all-male parliament is no more, with the first woman elected to office since 2008 likely to be announced within days.

“I’m excited for Vanuatu women of course,” Julia King said. King looks set to be returned as the MP for Mele on the outskirts of the capital of Port Vila. “I’m happy for women in general to know they have a voice that can be represented up there. That’s the part I can be excited about.”

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Huge fireball erupts on fuel barge in Vanuatu bay

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The vessel was delivering fuel in mangrove-rich South West Bay on Malekula Island when it burst into flames, injuring at least three people

A massive fireball has erupted after a fuel transport barge caught fire in a pristine bay on a remote Vanuatu island, injuring at least three people.

The Western Star, a barge fitted out to carry fuel and cargo, burst into flames at South West Bay on Malekula, Vanuatu’s second largest island, on Wednesday.

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Vanuatu calls on Australia to back its UN bid to recognise climate change harm

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Pacific islands urge new Labor government to support push for international court of justice to issue climate advisory opinion

Australia’s new Labor government has been called on to prove its commitment to climate action and support for Pacific countries by backing a campaign led by Vanuatu to see international law changed to recognise climate change harm.

In a letter to the prime minister sent by leading Pacific and Australian NGOs, shared exclusively with Guardian Australia, the groups urged Anthony Albanese to support Vanuatu’s campaign for the international court of justice to issue an advisory opinion on the question of climate change.

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Vanuatu, one of the last Covid hermit nations, to open to tourists after two years

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The tourism-dependent Pacific country will reopen with almost no restrictions in July, though there are concerns about lack of airline deals

Vanuatu, one of the last Covid hermit nations, is set to open up to international travel, but there are concerns the country is not ready to restart tourism, with a lack of deals with foreign airlines posing a significant problem.

From 1 July, international tourists will be able to return to Vanuatu, a country of 300,000 people three hours from Australia, which has had some of the toughest border restrictions in the world through the pandemic.

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Vanuatu police crack down with arrests over ‘slander’ of MPs accused of breaking Covid lockdown

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At least four people have been arrested and face charges of cyber stalking, cyber slander and cyber libel for Facebook comments

A police crackdown in Vanuatu that has seen people arrested for allegedly posting comments on social media speculating politicians were responsible for the country’s current Covid outbreak has raised serious concerns about freedom of speech in the Pacific country.

At least four people on two separate islands have been arrested as part of a major investigation by Vanuatu’s Serious Crime Unit in the last few weeks, including a factory worker, a printer, a business owner, and a Facebook page moderator. They face charges of cyber stalking, cyber slander, and cyber libel and face up to three years in prison and fines of up to three million Vatu (US$25,838).

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Vanuatu’s push for legal protection from climate change wins crucial support

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1,500 civil society groups from 130 countries back Vanuatu’s move to seek protection from the international court of justice

Vanuatu’s push for the international court of justice to protect vulnerable nations from climate change has received the backing of 1,500 civil society organisations from more than 130 countries, as it heads toward a crucial vote at the UN General Assembly later this year.

In 2021 Vanuatu announced its intention to seek an advisory opinion by the international court of justice on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change.

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EU could suspend Vanuatu visa-free travel over ‘golden passports’ scheme

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EU states set to vote on proposal after commission found deficiencies including ‘the granting of citizenship to applicants listed in Interpol’s databases’

The European Commission has proposed suspending a visa-free travel arrangement with Vanuatu due to concerns about the Pacific nation’s controversial “golden passports” scheme.

The proposed suspension, which still needs to be voted on by EU states, would prevent all holders of passports issued as of 25 May 2015 – when Vanuatu started issuing a substantial number of passports in exchange for investment – from travelling to the EU without a visa.

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I had death threats and my tires slashed for my reporting. Many journalists in the Pacific face huge dangers | Joyce McClure

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Freedom of the press might be included in some constitutions of Pacific countries, but it often only works in theory

I spent five years as the lone journalist on the remote Pacific island of Yap. During that time I was harassed, spat at, threatened with assassination and warned that I was being followed. The tyres on my car were slashed late one night.

There was also pressure on the political level. The chiefs of the traditional Council of Pilung (COP) asked the state legislature to throw me out of the country as a “persona non grata” claiming that my journalism “may be disruptive to the state environment and/or to the safety and security of the state”.

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In Samoa we are born into land, climate change threatens to take it away from us

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Everyone in the Pacific has stories of times the climate crisis hit our lives. For me, it is the birth of my daughter between cyclones

My daughter was born between cyclones.

It was January 2013, and as we drove to the hospital, we passed the wreckage left by Cyclone Evan which had devastated my home island weeks earlier. Evan had been the worst tropical cyclone to hit Samoa in over two decades. There were huge holes in the road. Debris where homes once stood.

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How are Australia’s neighbours faring in the Covid pandemic?

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Vaccination rates are rising in much of south-east Asia and the Pacific after recent outbreaks, but some of the largest countries are falling behind

While Australians have focused on the Covid waves in Sydney and Melbourne, many of Australia’s neighbours have recently experienced their largest outbreaks so far. This includes Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu and even Singapore.

Singapore surpassed Australia’s vaccination target weeks ago, but was now seeing more than a thousand cases a day. Fiji recently had one of the highest rates of Covid cases per capita – peaking at 1,850 cases in the middle of July. But the nation of 889,000 was now regularly administering more than 10,000 new vaccinations a day.

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Vanuatu to seek international court opinion on climate change rights

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The Pacific island nation wants clarity on the legal responsibilities owed to its people related to climate change

Vanuatu will ask the International court of justice for an advisory opinion on the rights of present and future generations to be protected from climate change.

With a population of about 280,000 people spread across roughly 80 islands, Vanuatu is among more than a dozen Pacific island nations facing rising sea levels and more regular storms that can wipe out much of their economies.

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Citizenship for sale: fugitives, politicians and disgraced businesspeople buying Vanuatu passports

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Revealed: more than 2,000 people, including individuals sought by police, have purchased passports, and with them visa-free access to the EU and UK

A controversial “golden passports” scheme run by the Pacific nation of Vanuatu saw more than 2,000 people, including a slew of disgraced businesspeople and individuals sought by police in countries all over the world, purchase citizenship in 2020 – and with it visa-free access to the EU and UK, the Guardian can reveal.

Among those granted citizenship through the country’s development support program were a Syrian businessman with US sanctions against his businesses, a suspected North Korean politician, an Italian businessman accused of extorting the Vatican, a former member of a notorious Australian motorcycle gang, and South African brothers accused of a $3.6bn cryptocurrency heist.

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Precarious moment: Vanuatu court to rule on prime minister’s fate

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Verdict on Bob Loughman’s parliamentary boycott is uncharted political territory for the Pacific island nation

Next week Vanuatu’s court of appeal will sit to decide the political fate of the prime minister, Bob Loughman, and 18 other MPs. The supreme court ruled in June that they had vacated their seats after a three-day boycott of parliament by the government side.

Even in a country accustomed to political intrigue and surprise, it is a precarious moment. So how did we get here, who are the key players and what might happen next?

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Why the world’s most fertile fishing ground is facing a ‘unique and dire’ threat

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China’s Pacific fishing fleet has grown by 500% since 2012 and is taking huge quantities of tuna

  • Read more of our Pacific Plunder series here

Since long before the steel-hulled fishing boats from foreign countries arrived in the South Pacific its people have had their own systems for sharing the ocean’s catches.

In the New Zealand colony of Tokelau, in the middle of the region, the 1,400 people living on its three atolls practise a system called inati, which ensures every household gets fish.

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‘Chilling’: Vanuatu libel bill prompts fears for free speech

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Bill placing libel under criminal rather than civil law could see journalists jailed for three years for ‘misleading’ content

Journalists and social media moderators in Vanuatu could face up to three years in prison under a new bill that broadly criminalises threatening words, gestures and the “reckless” sharing of false statements.

Changes to the criminal libel and slander provisions of the South Pacific country’s Penal Code Act mean that Ni-Vanuatu could now face imprisonment for “any representation that is untrue or misleading” on public platforms including “television, radio, internet websites, social networking sites and blog sites”.

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Closed borders and Cyclone Harald showed that locals are the best first responders in a disaster | Jill Aru

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When the storm hit Vanuatu last year, the lack of international support gave local aid workers a chance to be heard

If someone had told me this time last year that Vanuatu was about to weather one of the worst cyclones of our recent history with our borders closed, I may not have believed you.

After Cyclone Pam in 2015, hundreds of aid workers rushed in from overseas, eager to deliver lifesaving aid to communities who had lost everything.

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Sea of resilience: how the Pacific fought against Covid

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A new documentary shows that while the health impacts of the pandemic have - so far - been largely avoided, the effects of isolation on families, communities, and livelihoods has been profound

Faith, family, and a little bit of farming.

The Pacific’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of self-reliance and resistance: to turn to its communities and churches, its lands and seas.

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Vanuatu coronavirus vaccine rollout to take until end of 2023

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The majority of the Pacific nation’s population won’t be immunised for another two years, government planning documents show

Despite a tourism-dependent economy devastated by coronavirus shutdowns, Vanuatu’s Covid-19 vaccination programme will not inoculate most of its population until the end of 2023.

According to the ministry of health’s national deployment and vaccination plan, the first shots will be administered in April this year, but only the most vulnerable 20% of the population will get a jab in the first phase.

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