Police Deployed to Vanuatu’s Ambae Ahead of Mass Evacuation
Apatrol boat loaded with Police and mobile force personnel was deployed to the Vanuatu island of Ambae yesterday to help with a mass evacuation.
A state of emergency was declared on the island with the volcano at the island’s centre continuing to erupt, blanketing much of the island in ash.
The government announced last week that a mass evacuation would again take place, with people from the islands north, west and south being moved to the far east coast or nearby smaller islands. A spokesperson for the National Disaster Management Office, Presley Tari, said food supplies are being distributed by the provincial government and the patrol boat left Port Vila yesterday.
Mr Tari said the mass evacuation will begin once the forces arrive and establish themselves which is likely to be later on this week. Ambae is in Penama Province and the provincial government has secured land on the island’s east side for victims of the ongoing eruption.
This comes as the central government’s ministerial task force is still yet to complete negotiations to acquire land for resettlement on either Maewo or Pentecost - the two closest islands.
The Penama Provincial president, Alban Garaevui, said his government had made the first installment of $US9386 to a custom landowner, so people who would move from Ambae could live there and develop gardens. Landowner Stevenson Vusilai said he could not be happy while others on Ambae Island continued to suffer from the volcanic ash fall. Traditionally the east of Ambae has been the safest part of the island during eruptions, but wind changes have carried the ash in that direction as well. Reports from the island confirmed that ash continued to fall yesterday.