- Flights cancelled, residents to evacuate as Papua New Guinea volcano erupts Reuters
- Eruption of Papua New Guinea volcano subsides, though thick ash is billowing 3 miles into the sky The Associated Press
- Papua New Guinea volcano erupts and Japan says it’s assessing a possible tsunami risk to its islands KITV Honolulu
- Papua New Guinea cancels flights, plans evacuation after volcano erupts Al Jazeera English
- Eruption of Papua New Guinea volcano subsides though thick ash is billowing 3 miles into the sky The Killeen Daily Herald
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Tag Archives: Guinea
At Lunch Hosted By PM Modi In Papua New Guinea, The Star Ingredient Was… – NDTV
- At Lunch Hosted By PM Modi In Papua New Guinea, The Star Ingredient Was… NDTV
- PM Modi asked to be the leader of Global South at FIPIC Summit; ‘Will Rally Behind India…’ Hindustan Times
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- Indian Diaspora Greets PM Modi As He Lands In Sydney | Quad Summit 2023 | Modi In Sydney 2023 CNN-News18
- Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape Before Their Meeting – United States Department of State Department of State
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Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister’s daughter Savannah Tkatchenko slammed for Coronation TikToks – Daily Mail
- Papua New Guinea Foreign Minister’s daughter Savannah Tkatchenko slammed for Coronation TikToks Daily Mail
- Papua foreign minister resigns role over coronation travel cost controversy Reuters UK
- PNG’s Tkatchenko ‘stands aside’ after ‘primitive animals’ comment Al Jazeera English
- PNG minister apologises for calling daughter’s coronation critics ‘primitive animals’ The Guardian
- Papua foreign minister stands aside over coronation travel cost controversy Yahoo News
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While health authorities are racing to contain a deadly Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea, the U.S. has experimental vaccines – CBS News
- While health authorities are racing to contain a deadly Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea, the U.S. has experimental vaccines CBS News
- Marburg disease hits Africa as WHO confirms outbreak in Equatorial Guinea Fox News
- Outbreak of Marburg, Ebola’s similarly deadly relative, spurs response race Ars Technica
- Cameroon finds suspected cases of Marburg virus, an illness similar to Ebola CNN
- Cameroon Dismisses Suspected Marburg Infections After Equatorial Guinea’s First Outbreak Voice of America – VOA News
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Long-lost pigeon species ‘rediscovered’ in Papua New Guinea
CNN
—
A bird thought to be extinct for 140 years has been rediscovered in the forests of Papua New Guinea.
The black-naped pheasant-pigeon was documented by scientists for the first and last time in 1882, according to a news release from nonprofit Re:wild, which helped fund the search effort.
Rediscovering the bird required an expedition team to spend a grueling month on Fergusson, a rugged island in the D’Entrecasteaux Archipelago off eastern Papua New Guinea where the bird was originally documented. The team consisted of local staff at the Papua New Guinea National Museum as well as international scientists from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the American Bird Conservancy.
Fergusson Island is covered in rugged, mountainous terrain – making the expedition especially challenging for the scientists. Many members of the community told the team that they hadn’t seen the black-naped pheasant-pigeon in decades, says the news release.
But just two days before the researchers were scheduled to leave the island, a camera trap captured footage of the exceptionally rare bird.
“After a month of searching, seeing those first photos of the pheasant-pigeon felt like finding a unicorn,” John C. Mittermeier, director of the lost birds program at American Bird Conservancy and co-leader of the expedition, said in the release. “It is the kind of moment you dream about your entire life as a conservationist and birdwatcher.”
The black-naped pheasant-pigeon is a large, ground-dwelling pigeon with a broad tail, according to the release. Scientists still know little about the species and believe the population is small and decreasing.
Insight from local residents was crucial for the scientists to track down the elusive bird.
“It wasn’t until we reached villages on the western slope of Mt. Kilkerran that we started meeting hunters who had seen and heard the pheasant-pigeon,” Jason Gregg, a conservation biologist and co-leader of the expedition team, said in the release. “We became more confident about the local name of the bird, which is ‘Auwo,’ and felt like we were getting closer to the core habitat of where the black-naped pheasant-pigeon lives.”
They placed a total of 12 camera traps on the slopes of Mt. Kilkerran, which is the island’s highest mountain. And they placed another eight cameras in locations where local hunters reported seeing the bird in the past.
A hunter named Augustin Gregory, based in the mountain village Duda Ununa, provided the final breakthrough that helped scientists locate the pheasant-pigeon.
Gregory told the team that he had seen the black-naped pheasant-pigeon in an area with “steep ridges and valleys,” says the news release. And he had heard the bird’s distinctive calls.
So the expedition team placed a camera on a 3,200-foot high ridge near the Kwama River above Duda Ununa, according to the release. And finally, just as their trip was ending, they captured footage of the bird walking on the forest floor.
The discovery was a shock for the scientists and the local community alike.
“The communities were very excited when they saw the survey results, because many people hadn’t seen or heard of the bird until we began our project and got the camera trap photos,” said Serena Ketaloya, a conservationist from Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, in the news release. “They are now looking forward to working with us to try to protect the pheasant-pigeon.”
It’s still not clear just how many of the black-naped pheasant-pigeon are left, and the rugged terrain will make identifying the population difficult. A two-week survey in 2019 failed to find any proof of the bird, although it did discover some reports from hunters that helped determine the locations for the 2022 expedition.
And the discovery might provide hope that other bird species thought extinct are still out there somewhere.
“This rediscovery is an incredible beacon of hope for other birds that have been lost for a half century or more,” said Christina Biggs, the manager for the Search for Lost Species at Re:wild, in the release. “The terrain the team searched was incredibly difficult, but their determination never wavered, even though so few people could remember seeing the pheasant-pigeon in recent decades.”
Deaths from Papua New Guinea earthquake rise to seven, police say
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SYDNEY, Sept 12 (Reuters) – The death toll from a “significant” earthquake that struck Papua New Guinea on Sunday has risen to seven, the Pacific island nation’s police commissioner said, adding that it occurred deep below ground which limited damage.
An initial earthquake of 7.6 magnitude struck the Markham Valley at 9:46am on Sunday, followed by a 5.0 magnitude earthquake 70 km (45 miles) north an hour later, Commissioner of Police David Manning said in a statement on Monday. read more
The two earthquakes were reported at a depth of 90 km and 101 km underground, he said.
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Significant damage to buildings and roads and landslides were reported in Morobe, Eastern Highlands and Madang provinces, he said.
“Sadly, seven people have been confirmed dead as a result of these landslides. Three in Kabwum District and three in Wau Town, Morobe Province, and one in Rai Coast, Madang Province,” he said.
“This was a significant earthquake, however it occurred deep below ground level and this meant damage was less than if the epicentre had been closer to the surface,” he added.
Aviation company Manolos Aviation organised medical evacuations from Kombul village in Kabwum district.
“Half of the mountain is gone,” said Manolos Aviation public relations officer Erebiri Zurenuoc, who was at the scene in Kombul.
A National Command Centre has been established by the government, and a COVID-19 hotline has been repurposed for the public to offer information on earthquake damage.
The regional power grid, internet cables, roads and highways had been damaged, Manning said.
In Eastern Highlands province, there was damage to the University of Goroka and reports of injuries to students, he said. Engineers are assessing damage to the Yonki Dam that has caused power outages.
In Madang province, there were multiple injuries as buildings and houses were damaged, and one death was reported on the Rai Coast, he said.
He warned of a significant risk of aftershocks.
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Reporting by Kirsty Needham and Lewis Jackson in Sydney; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
3 dead after 7.6 quake hits remote part of Papua New Guinea
WELLINGTON, New Zealand — At least three people are dead after a powerful earthquake hit a remote part of Papua New Guinea Sunday morning, authorities say. Others were injured and infrastructure damaged in the magnitude 7.6 jolt that was felt across the Pacific country.
The three people died in a landslide in the gold-mining town of Wau, said Morobe Provincial Disaster Director Charley Masange. Other people had been injured from falling structures or debris, and there was damage to some health centers, homes, rural roads and highways, Masange told The Associated Press.
Masange said it could take some time to assess the full extent of the injuries and damage in the region. But he said the sparse and scattered population and lack of large buildings near the epicenter in the nation’s largely undeveloped highlands may have helped prevent a bigger disaster, given the earthquake was so strong.
One resident from the town closest to the epicenter described his ordeal to the AP.
Renagi Ravu was meeting with two colleagues at his home in Kainantu when the quake struck.
Ravu tried to stand up from his chair but couldn’t maintain his balance and ended up in a kind of group hug with his colleagues, while plates and cups crashed from his shelves to the ground, he said. His children, ages 9 and 2, had their drinks and breakfast spill over.
Ravu, who is a geologist, said he tried to calm everybody as the shaking continued for more than a minute.
Ravu said that about 10,000 people live in and around his town, which is located 66 kilometers (41 miles) from the quake’s epicenter.
He said people were feeling rattled.
“It’s a common thing that earthquakes are felt here, but it usually doesn’t last as long and is not as violent as this one,” Ravu said. “It was quite intense.”
Ravu was sorting through the damage to his home, which he said likely included a broken sewer pipe judging from the smell. He said friends elsewhere in Kainantu had messaged him with descriptions of cracked roads, broken pipes and fallen debris, but hadn’t described major building collapses or injuries.
“They are starting to clean up their houses and the streets,” he said. Communication seems to have been affected, he added, with some cell towers likely to have fallen.
A magnitude 7.5 earthquake in 2018 in the nation’s central region killed at least 125 people. That quake hit areas that are remote and undeveloped, and assessments about the scale of the damage and injuries were slow to filter out.
Felix Taranu, a seismologist at the Geophysical Observatory in the capital Port Moresby, said it was too early to know the full impacts of Sunday’s earthquake, although its strength meant it “most likely caused considerable damage.”
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake hit at 9:46 a.m. local time at a depth of 90 kilometers (56 miles). NOAA advised there was no tsunami threat for the region.
Papua New Guinea is located on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia and north of eastern Australia. It sits on the Pacific’s “Ring of Fire,” the arc of seismic faults around the Pacific Ocean where much of the world’s earthquakes and volcanic activity occurs.
Defiant junta rejects pressure to let Conde leave Guinea
CONAKRY, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Guinea’s military junta said on Friday it would not bow to regional pressure and allow President Alpha Conde, detained since his overthrow on Sept. 5, to leave the country.
On Friday Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara and Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo paid a one-day visit to Conakry to ask coup leader Mamady Doumbouya, a special forces commander and former French Legionnaire, for Conde’s release.
Outtara had been hoping to leave Guinea with Conde, a senior regional government official told Reuters.
“The former president is and remains in Guinea. We will not yield to any pressure,” the junta said in a statement read on state TV.
Ouattara and Akufo-Addo, representing the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), held a separate meeting with Conde at the Mohamed VI Palace in Conakry, but flew out the country on Friday evening empty-handed.
Ouattara told Radio-Télévision Guinéenne (RTG) at Conakry airport before leaving: “I met my brother Alpha Conde, who is doing well. We will remain in contact.”
Akufo-Addo told RTG: “We’ve had a very frank and fraternal meeting with Doumbouya and his collaborators. I think that ECOWAS and Guinea are going to find the best way to move forward together.”
ECOWAS has demanded a return to constitutional rule since the special forces unit seized control of the presidential palace, detained Conde and declared itself in charge.
Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, new chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), speaks to journalists after a consultative meeting in Accra, Ghana September 15, 2020. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko/File Photo
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The bloc agreed on Thursday to freeze financial assets of the junta and their relatives and bar them from travelling. The junta has not responded.
‘COUP-BELT’
Events in Guinea followed coups in Mali and Chad earlier this year that have raised fears of a democratic backslide in a region only just shedding its “coup-belt” reputation.
Guinea’s coup leaders have held a week of consultations with public figures and business leaders to map out a framework for a transitional government.
ECOWAS’s credibility in Guinea has been strained since 2018, when the bloc failed to condemn Conde for running for a third term in office last year, despite a law declaring that presidents must step down after two and widespread protests.
Ouattara himself used a constitutional change as an excuse to run for a third term last year, a move critics decried as illegal.
Following Thursday’s summit, during which ECOWAS also pressured Mali’s transitional government to hold elections by February 2022, the regional body said it would be reviewing protocols on democracy and good governance.
On departing the airport in Conakry, the ECOWAS motorcade passed dozens of pro-junta demonstrators brandishing signs.
One read: “ECOWAS does not decide for us.”
Reporting by Saliou Samb and Christian Akorlie; Additional reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Hereward Holland; Editing by Edward McAllister, Philippa Fletcher, Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean and David Gregorio
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
West African bloc resorts to sanctions over Guinea and Mali coups
ACCRA, Sept 16 (Reuters) – West Africa’s main regional bloc on Thursday imposed sanctions against the junta in Guinea and those slowing Mali’s post-coup transition – its toughest response yet to a run of military takeovers.
The move was agreed at an emergency summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Accra to respond to last week’s putsch in Guinea and perceived slow progress towards constitutional rule in Mali following a coup last year. read more
Regional heads of state decided to freeze the financial assets and impose travel bans on Guinea’s junta members and their relatives, insisting on the release of President Alpha Conde and a short transition.
“In six months elections should be held,” said ECOWAS Commission President Jean-Claude Kassi Brou at a briefing.
The bloc also piled more pressure on Mali’s transitional government, demanding they stick to an agreement to organise elections for February 2022 and present an electoral roadmap by next month, according to the post-summit communique.
Anyone in Mali hindering preparations for the elections faces the same sanctions as those imposed in Guinea, it said.
Leaders who took part in the summit hailed this more hardline stance. West and Central Africa has seen four coups since last year – political upheaval that has intensified concerns about a backslide towards military rule in a resource-rich but poverty-stricken region.
Special forces commander Mamady Doumbouya, who ousted President Alpha Conde, walks out after meeting the envoys from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to discuss ways to steer Guinea back toward a constitutional regime, in Conakry, Guinea September 10, 2021. REUTERS/Saliou Samb
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“I welcome the strong actions of the summit to safeguard democracy, peace, security and stability in the subregion,” Senegalese President Macky Sall tweeted.
Coup leaders in Guinea are holding consultations this week with various public figures, groups and business leaders in the country to map a framework for the transition.
Late on Thursday they said they were also expecting a delegation of regional heads of state to visit Conakry for talks on Friday.
Soldiers behind the Sept. 5 coup have said they ousted Conde because of concerns about poverty and corruption, and because he was serving a third term only after altering the constitution to permit it.
Meanwhile the putsch in Mali was largely precipitated by a security crisis, which has seen militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State extend their influence across the north and centre of the country.
The new Malian authorities’ pledge to hold presidential and legislative elections early next year has been undermined by their failure to meet various deadlines, including the start of voter roll updates and the presentation of a new constitution.
The transition was dealt a further setback in May when the colonel who led the initial coup, Assimi Goita, ordered the arrest of the interim president and then took over the role himself. read more
Additional reporting by Saliou Samb in Conakry and Bate Felix in Dakar; Writing by Cooper Inveen, Bate Felix and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, Marguerita Choy and Grant McCool
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West African regional bloc suspends Guinea after coup
CONAKRY, Sept 8 (Reuters) – West Africa’s main political and economic bloc suspended Guinea’s membership on Wednesday following a weekend military coup that ousted President Alpha Conde and dealt the latest in a flurry of setbacks to democracy in the region.
During a virtual summit, leaders from the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) demanded a return to the constitutional order and Conde’s immediate release, and also agreed to send a high-level mission to Guinea as soon as Thursday, said Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Alpha Barry.
“At the end of that mission, ECOWAS should be able to re-examine its position,” Barry told reporters.
He did not announce any immediate economic sanctions against Guinea, as ECOWAS imposed against Mali following a coup there in August 2020.
Some experts say ECOWAS’s leverage with Guinea could be limited, in part because the country is not a member of the West African currency union and not landlocked like Mali.
The economic bloc’s response is being closely watched amid criticism from pro-democracy advocates that it has not stood up robustly enough in recent months against democratic backsliding in West Africa.
ECOWAS remained silent last year as Conde and Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara sought third terms after changing constitutions that would have forced them to step down, moves denounced as illegal by their opponents.
Activists say this has contributed to West Africans’ loss of faith in democracy and made military coups more likely.
Mali’s military staged a second coup in May this year. ECOWAS said on Tuesday it was concerned transitional authorities there had not made sufficient progress toward organising elections next February as promised. read more
Special forces members take position during an uprising that led to the toppling of president Alpha Conde in Kaloum neighbourhood of Conakry, Guinea September 5, 2021. REUTERS/Saliou Samb
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PRISONER RELEASES
Guinea’s coup leader, Mamady Doumbouya, a former French legionnaire, has pledged to install a unified, transitional government but has not said when or how that will happen.
In an apparent gesture to Conde’s civilian opponents, at least 80 political prisoners detained by the president were released on Tuesday evening, many of whom had campaigned against his constitutional change.
Doumbouya also met the heads of Guinea’s various military branches for the first time on Tuesday, hoping to unify the country’s armed forces under the junta’s command.
Guinea’s main opposition leader, Cellou Dalein Diallo, who finished runner-up to Conde in three successive elections, told Reuters on Tuesday he would be open to participating in a transition back to constitutional governance.
In a statement on Tuesday evening, Conde’s party said it “noted the advent of new authorities at the head of the country” and called for the president’s swift and unconditional release.
Since the putsch, life in the streets of Conakry appears to have returned to normal, with some military checkpoints removed.
Fears that the power struggle could hinder Guinea’s production of bauxite, a mineral used to make aluminium, have begun to ease. The country’s largest foreign operators say they have continued to operate without interruption.
Aluminium hit a fresh 10-year high on Monday after news broke of unrest in Guinea, which holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves. Doumbouya has pledged that mining will continue unhindered.
Additional reporting by Christian Akorlie in Accra; Writing by Cooper Inveen and Aaron Ross, Editing by Hereward Holland, Timothy Heritage and Gareth Jones
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.