Unstable volcano forces Vanuatu residents to flee
THE last residents on Vanuatu’s northern island of Ambae will be evacuated as a volcano that has been spitting rock and ash into the air for more than a week shows signs of stabilising.
Vanuatu was forced to use a flotilla of small boats, barges and supply ships to evacuate roughly 11 000 people in recent days after Manaro Voui volcano, the South Pacific island nation’s largest, threatened to erupt.
“There are just several hundred people left, many of whom are officials assisting with the evacuation. We expect the evacuation to be complete today,” said an official.
Although confident of evacuating the vast majority of Ambae residents, officials may struggle to convince everyone to leave amid fears of losing vulnerable livestock and crops.
Ambae’s population has been moved to the closest islands of Maewo, Pentecost and Espiritu Santo until the threat of eruption has eased.
Although the volcano remains at a level four, the second highest level in Vanuatu’s alert system, aid workers said the amount of rock and ash being emitted had stabilised.
With the evacuation nearly complete, focus has shifted to ensuring those displaced have enough food and water, with shipments from Australia and New Zealand filling an urgent need.
Despite evacuating to safety, aid workers said locals were anxious to return to assess the damage.
“The biggest source of stress and anxiety to many is they have been told to leave and they couldn’t take their livestock, which is so important to their subsistence and income,” said Georgia Tacey, Vanuatu country director at Save the Children Australia.
Vanuatu is one of the world’s poorest nations, where locals are almost entirely reliant on food grown in their garden to survive, aid workers said.
On Sunday, Vanuatu launched a Dunkirk-style evacuation as a flotilla of boats rescued islanders from an erupting volcano that has polluted many of the island’s sources of drinking water, leaving thousands of people in need, said Red Cross delegate Joe Cropp.
About 1 000 people were moved off the island over the 24 hours to Sunday evening.