Vanuatu

Vanuatu have secured their spot in the men’s T20 cricket World Cup East Asia-Pacific Regional Final qualifier. Vanuatu finished top of the table in the sub-regional qualifier, with five wins from six matches. Vanuatu will join PNG, the Philippines, and...

Efforts to contain a covid outbreak on Vanuatu’s Pentecost Island are being hampered by a lack of testing equipment. RNZ Pacific’s correspondent in Vanuatu reports chief Visisio Bubunbah as saying the government has under-estimated the omicron situation on the island....

Vanuatu's Education Ministry says there is no quick fix to address a shortage of high schools in the country. This is after reports that there are not enough schools to accommodate Year 11 students for the 2022 academic year which starts next Monday. Director of Education Services Samuel Katipa told RNZ Pacific there are 2000 primary schools but only 90 secondary schools on the island.

Police and a court sheriff have relocated more than 500 settlers from Black Sands in Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila, ahead of their eviction deadline. It is the biggest relocation of illegal settlers undertaken on Efate and follows a police exercise last week, when about 100 people were relocated from near Mele village. One of the relocated Black Sands villagers said he had been living there for 30 years.

An elder at the Seventh Day Adventist Church in the Vanuatu capital, Port Vila, is appealing to members of churches and the public to help their Melanesian brothers and sisters from Solomon Islands who are stranded in Vanuatu. Elder Lawrence Dick said the Solomon Islands nurses, whose contracts ended recently, cannot return to their country yet due to Covid-19.

The Vanuatu Cricket Association's players and staff are now fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The group received their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in Port Vila on Wednesday. Over 30,000 people in Vanuatu have received at least one dose of the vaccine in and the Vanuatu Cricket players and staff are amongst the first 2000 people in the country who are now fully vaccinated.

Vanuatu's prime minister has announced the creation of a safe travel bubble between Vanuatu and New Caledonia. From April, the so-called 'Tamtam Bubble' will allow easier travel between the covid-free Melanesian neighbours. Travel will be restricted to Vanuatu's main island of Efate.

The UN children's agency in Vanuatu says motivating children to return to school is its key focus for today's public holiday, Children's Day. The event is part of a nine day celebration marking Vanuatu's 40th independence anniversary. However the occasion was bittersweet in some ways. UNICEF's Communications Officer, Rebecca Olul, said while Children's Day in the south would be festival-like, it would be different in the north.

The Vanuatu women's beach volleyball team are set to boost a community-based tournament in celebration of the nations 40 years of independence. Eight men's and eight women's six-a-side teams have been confirmed to compete in the Indoor Volleyball Championships which got underway yesterday and will consist of 40 matches over a four week period. Tournament director, Mike Masauvakalo, said it was great to see national players getting involved.

There are calls for the government to put more pressure on Vanuatu to repatriate its citizens with hundreds of seasonal visa holders stranded in New Zealand due to Covid-19. Some got home before Covid-19 gripped New Zealand, but about 500 Vanuatuans working in Central Otago for orchard and grape harvests became stuck when Vanuatu closed its borders. The horticulture and viticulture sectors in the district rely heavily on Vanuatuan seasonal workers.