Category Archives: Papua New Guinea

‘We are in dire straits’: Pacific stands on Covid brink amid surging infections

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Rising cases in Papua New Guinea, French Polynesia, and Guam raise fears of uncontrolled coronavirus outbreaks across Pacific

Surging Covid-19 cases in Guam are threatening to overwhelm the island’s healthcare system, while rapidly spreading infections across Papua New Guinea and new clusters in French Polynesia following the resumption of tourism have sparked fears of uncontrolled outbreaks in the Pacific.

The Pacific region is still the least-infected in the world – several countries remain Covid-19 free – but there are troubling surges across countries with fragile health systems ill-equipped for large numbers of infections.

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Pacific’s fight against Covid-19 hamstrung by lack of clean water

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Access to clean, safe drinking water across the Pacific is the lowest of any region in the world, raising fears for the rapid spread of coronavirus

Papua New Guinea’s battle against a climbing rate of Covid-19 infections is being hampered by the most basic of shortages – access to clean water –public health experts have warned.

Case numbers have jumped from just 11 cases two months ago to 424 on Friday, with four deaths. And efforts to contain escalating case numbers throughout the archipelago, and to prevent outbreaks across the Pacific region, are being hamstrung because thousands cannot access clean water for hand-washing and cleaning, the region’s key development agency says.

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Papua New Guinea bans Chinese mine staff ‘given experimental Covid-19 vaccine’

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Flight carrying workers from Chinese state-owned Ramu nickel mine cancelled by pandemic controller over concerns about vaccine trial

A planeload of Chinese mine workers have been barred from entering Papua New Guinea, over concerns they had been subjected to an unapproved Covid-19 vaccination trial before they left.

A flight from China carrying workers for the Chinese state-owned Ramu Nickel mine in Madang province was cancelled by PNG’s police commissioner and pandemic controller, David Manning, over concerns about the trial.

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New Guinea has greatest plant diversity of any island in the world, study reveals

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The tropical island edges out Madagascar as botanists estimate that 4,000 new species could be discovered in the next 50 years

New Guinea is home to more than 13,500 species of plant, two-thirds of which are endemic, according to a new study that suggests it has the greatest plant diversity of any island in the world – 19% more than Madagascar, which previously held the record.

Ninety-nine botanists from 56 institutions in 19 countries trawled through samples, the earliest of which were collected by European travellers in the 1700s. Large swathes of the island remain unexplored and some historical collections have yet to be looked at. Researchers estimate that 4,000 more plant species could be found in the next 50 years, with discoveries showing “no sign of levelling off”, according to the paper published in Nature.

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I left Manus Island but it’s hard to feel free while my refugee brothers and sisters are still detained | Imran Mohammad Fazal Hoque

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Those of us who have resettled in the US and other countries all left someone very close to us behind

On 19 July 2013 the Australian government announced that those who arrived by boat seeking safety would never reach the mainland. The effect of this policy is beyond description and I am still haunted by the memories of the time myself and hundreds of others were held captive on Manus Island.

The concept of a system ruining people’s lives is not easy to understand. It is complex, destructive and manipulative and every aspect is highly politicised. It is a form of systematic torture, the scars of which are not obvious, but they are real and will affect a person for the rest of his or her life.

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Jenelyn Kennedy’s death was senseless – we must all ensure she did not die in vain

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The teenager’s violent death has inspired a broader movement against PNG’s endemic domestic abuse

For six full days 19-year-old Jenelyn Kennedy suffered. Her legs and arms were chained, witness statements to police say, her mouth gagged.

They allege she died from being beaten, locked in her room. Her young children in a room down the hall.

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Papua New Guinea chiefs call for halt to plan for country’s largest ever mine

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Locals say the Sepik river region must be protected from ‘exploitation and destruction from outsiders’

Chiefs from 28 haus tambarans – “spirit houses” – representing 78,000 people along Papua New Guinea’s remote Sepik river have formally declared they want a proposal for the country’s largest ever mine halted.

PanAust, an Australian-registered miner ultimately owned by the Chinese state-owned Guangdong Rising Assets Management, has proposed building a gold, silver and copper mine on the Frieda river, a tributary to the Sepik.

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Coronavirus in the Pacific: weekly briefing

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Covid-19-related developments throughout the Pacific Islands

The total number of Covid-19 cases across the Pacific stands at 314, with new cases reported this week in New Caledonia, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam.

New Zealand is under increasing pressure, both internally and from across the region, to consider Pacific countries as part of its proposed travel ‘bubble’, alongside, or even in place of, Australia. The foreign minister, Winston Peters, initially rejected including Pacific island nations, but later backtracked.

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‘Leave that lady alone’: rugby star’s domestic violence video sparks outcry in Papua New Guinea

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Debbie Kaore who has represented the Pacific nation in rugby and boxing shared a video of alleged attack from partner

A shocking video that appears to show a Papua New Guinean sports star being beaten by her partner has sparked outrage across the country and prompted calls for the government to take urgent action to address high rates of violence against women.

Graphic photographs and a video that appear to show a man repeatedly head-butting a woman and hitting her across the face with a hot clothing iron were widely shared across social media in Papua New Guinea over the weekend, sparking outrage.

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Fears in Papua New Guinea over reports of China Mobile buying major phone carrier Digicel

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Speculation that the beleaguered mobile phone operator will be sold to Chinese telco has sparked security concerns

Speculation that mobile phone operator Digicel is considering selling the Papua New Guinea business that is considered the jewel in the financially troubled empire’s crown has sparked concern within the country over Beijing’s growing influence in PNG.

The Digicel conglomerate, which is controlled by Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, surprised many of its users in PNG by filing bankruptcy proceedings earlier this month in Bermuda and the US, where it owes billions of dollars.

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Papua New Guinea police arrest former PM Peter O’Neill over alleged corruption

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PNG police say O’Neill was arrested over the $14m purchase of two generators allegedly without parliamentary approval

Papua New Guinea police have arrested former prime minister Peter O’Neill over the alleged purchase of generators from Israel without parliamentary approval, according to the country’s assistant police commissioner.

O’Neill was arrested on Saturday at the main airport of Port Moresby, PNG’s capital, after returning from Australia, and brought in for questioning, assistant crimes commissioner Hodges Ette said in a statement.

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Politics and Porgera: why Papua New Guinea cancelled the lease on one of its biggest mines

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The announcement not to renew the goldmine lease is fraught but part of an attempt to ‘take back PNG’

Late in April, in the middle of a global pandemic and slow-boiling domestic economic crisis, the government of Papua New Guinea made the surprising announcement not to extend the mining lease on a goldmine that contributes roughly 10% of the country’s total exports.

The announcement not to renew the special mining lease for the Porgera mine was a shock, not least to the mine’s operator, Barrick Gold, and their joint venture partner Zijin Mining.

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‘We were behind the eight ball’: Papua New Guinea’s health minister on Covid-19

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Jelta Wong had been in the job for just a few months when the coronavirus outbreak reached PNG

When Jelta Wong was appointed as Papua New Guinea’s health minister in November, he knew he had his work cut out for him.

The Pacific nation just north of Australia is dealing with outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever, drug-resistant tuberculosis and had a recent outbreak of polio. Its health system is notoriously fractured and underfunded.

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Thai geologist shot dead in second mining-related killing in Bougainville

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Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot as he conducted exploration activities for a new gold mine in the region

A Thai geologist working at a new gold mine in Bougainville has been shot dead in the second killing at a mining project in the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea in recent months.

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot by a high-powered weapon on Monday in the Kokoda constituency of south Bougainville.

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Tragedy at sea: eight dead and four rescued after 32 days adrift in South Pacific

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Group left Papua New Guinea in canoe before Christmas and survivors were rescued almost 2,000km away a month later

Four people have been rescued after spending 32 days adrift in the South Pacific, after a tragic voyage that resulted in the deaths of eight of their fellow travellers, including a baby.

The group left Bougainville island, east of the mainland of Papua New Guinea, on 22 December to travel the Carteret Islands 100km away for Christmas celebrations.

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‘So many women were killed’: fighting sorcery-related violence in Papua New Guinea – video

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Parts of Papua New Guinea continue to grapple with violence related to sanguma, black magic or sorcery. Deaths in villages are often blamed on people accused of sorcery, who are tortured or murdered. Now an Oxfam-backed organisation is tackling the problem by providing support to survivors of violence and to the local police to prevent incidents

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Pacific nations need much more than Scott Morrison’s thanks to survive

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Governments from across the Pacific have offered support for bushfire relief but are in a tight spot with Australia over the climate crisis

When Scott Morrison thanked governments of the world for their assistance with Australia’s bushfire crisis, he particularly singled out “the loving response from our Pacific family”.

Across the Pacific region – a collection of developing and least developed nations that are themselves almost uniquely at risk from climate-induced catastrophes – the response to the Australian bushfires has been immediate and generous, but it also reveals something of the problematic fraternity that Australia has with the rest of the region.

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Zac Efron falls ill while filming reality show Killing Zac Efron

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US actor hit by suspected typhoid while filming survival TV series in Papua New Guinea

The American actor Zac Efron has confirmed he recently fell ill while filming a survival reality TV show in Papua New Guinea.

Australian media had reported that Efron, 32, was flown by helicopter for treatment in Australia after contracting a bacterial infection, possibly typhoid, while shooting the Killing Zac Efron series.

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New Zealand would be honoured to take Behrouz Boochani. Australia be damned | Morgan Godfery

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The moral case for the former Manus island detainee becoming a citizen is as simple as ‘asylum is a human right’

I wonder if it winds up Peter Dutton to know that Behrouz Boochani, the Kurdish-Iranian journalist, award-winning author and former Manus Island detainee, is a free man in the continent’s orbit. Boochani, the best-known witness, critic and victim of Australia’s offshore “processing centres”, remains in New Zealand after his 30-day visa came to an end. No one quite knows what the No Friend But the Mountains author is planning next, but it seems safe to assume that sooner or later he’ll lodge an application for asylum in New Zealand. A permanent reminder to Dutton, his predecessors and the country’s immigration detention system that they are not as close to vanishing the “boat people” problem as they might have thought.

For their part New Zealand’s policymakers fear as much with headlines suggesting if Boochani’s hypothetical asylum application is successful it could “fuel tensions with Australia”. The problem is Behrouz Boochani, New Zealander, would enjoy free movement between his new home and his old incarcerators, unless Dutton and the gang insert new exceptions in the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. This is the “back door” the Coalition government in Canberra is so afraid of, and the political problem preventing Scott Morrison from taking up Jacinda Ardern’s invitation to resettle the last remaining detainees on Manus.

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Dead rats, putrid flesh and sweaty socks: rare orchid gives UK botanists their first whiff

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The plant has flowered for the first time in Britain, but the climate crisis is making such events rarer than ever

It is famous for smelling like “a thousand dead elephants rotting in the sun”, its petals resemble decaying flesh, and it is so rare that outside its natural habitat in Papua New Guinea, few botanists in the world have ever seen it in flower.

Now this highly pungent orchid – Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis – is in bloom for the first time in a glasshouse at Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

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