PINA

Digicel chooses SES for Tonga By Dionisia Tabureguci More communication services will be made available via satellite for Digicel Tonga's customers over the next few days, according to European satellite company SES, who announced today its partnership with Digicel to bring the island kingdom online. “SES announced today that it has enabled Digicel to restore vital communications with the outside world following...

Pacific populations have been urged to remain vigilant at all times and take heed of the correct information and warnings from their National Meteorological offices as the region trudges through the remaining months of the cyclone season. The reminder comes from the Pacific Meteorological Desk at SPREP at the beginning of 2022, following some recent extreme weather events in the...

Twenty-four test All Black Malakai Fekitoa has received some good news from tsunami-hit Tonga, but the agonising wait to hear from his mother goes on. Tonga was devastated after the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano erupted at about 5.30pm last Saturday, causing a frightening tsunami and a communications blackout. Fekitoa, who now plays for the Wasps club in the UK, has now revealed he...

Families have stopped children playing outside as Tonga struggles to deal with ash and the psychological fallout of last week's volcanic eruption and tsunami, aid workers and residents said. Communication with the outside world remained difficult on Sunday, with few internet services, and outlying islands still cut off from the phone service. The Red Cross said it was providing not only...

As news coverage of the eruption and tsunami that hit Tonga starts to fade away, the United Nations Coordination Specialist in the country has a message to the outside world: Tonga’s people are going to need sustained support responding to a disaster of this scale. “The resources that we have in the ground are not enough”, Sione Hufanga explained, in...

Tonga has turned back an aid flight from Australia due to a positive Covid case on board, despite assurances from the Morrison government that humanitarian relief from the volcanic eruption and tsunami could be offered in a Covid-safe way. Tonga is Covid-free and has a strict border control policy, requiring contactless delivery of aid that began arriving by plane last...

Tonga faces a long road to recovery, with most of the population affected by the violent eruption and tsunami that followed, and many areas still scrambling to restore basic necessities. Almost 85 percent of the country's population of about 105,000 people has been affected by last weekend's volcanic eruption and tsunami, the Tongan government said. It shared more details about the...

UK-funded aid is being sent to Tonga, almost a week after parts of the island nation were devastated by a volcanic eruption and tsunami. The Australian naval ship HMAS Adelaide was expected to set sail on Friday carrying British aid, including 90 family-sized tents, eight community tents, and six wheelbarrows requested by the Tongan government. At the same time, the Royal...

The World Bank has disbursed an initial US$8 million in emergency financing to support the Kingdom of Tonga's response and recovery following the devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami on 15 January. The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai undersea volcano, located approximately 65 kilometers north of Tonga's main island of Tongatapu, erupted on 15 January creating an ash plume at least 30 kilometers high and...

Journalist Marian Kupu recounts the moment of the eruption and the panic that followed By Kate Lyons Tonga is used to natural disasters, but they have never experienced anything like the last week. “We’ve experienced tropical cyclones, but this is so new and no one will ever forget this, ever,” says Marian Kupu, a journalist for BroadCom Broadcasting FM87.5 in Tonga. “We didn’t...