Peacekeeping duties Australia to wind down Solomons mission
AUSTRALIA’S peacekeeping mission in the Solomon Islands is being wound down.
The Australian government stated about 40 defence personnel were due to return home in the next 48 hours.
Over 200 peacekeepers from Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand were deployed to Honiara to help maintain calm after protests spiralled into days of unrest that reduced much of downtown to rubble.
The Department of Defence stated some Australian military personnel would remain to provide “command, communications, logistics and air movement” support to the joint peacekeeping effort with police.
Fijian soldiers left Honiara on Wednesday.
Australia previously led a peacekeeping mission in the Solomons from 2003 to 2017, but Canberra had insisted the current deployment would only last “a matter of weeks”.
The crisis erupted late last month when protests over government policies turned violent, fuelled by poverty, unemployment and local grievances.
After trying to storm parliament, mobs ran amok for three days, torching much of Honiara’s Chinatown area.
The protests were sparked by opposition to veteran Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, who was keen to forge closer ties with Beijing.
The 66-year-old four-time leader sailed through a vote of no confidence in Parliament earlier this month, blunting the attacks of his opponents.
AMERICAN Samoa officials are looking to normalise commercial flights with Samoa next year. American Samoa COVID-19 Task Force chairman Talauega Eleasalo Ale said the hope for the new year ahead was that inter-Samoa flights would return to normal and regular commercial flight schedules be co-ordinated with the Samoa Government.
Teen jailed
IN Samoa, an 18-year-old convicted of several crimes, including two counts of burglaries; two charges of theft, arson and grevious bodily harm has been sentenced to two years and three months in jail. Anelusi Anelusi appeared before Justice Niava Mata Tuatagaloa to be sentenced for the burglaries and assaulting a taxidriver with a hammer.