Goroka fights

In a statement the firm says: “Due to damage to the runway at Goroka reaching a level that the airline feels poses a significant safety threat to ongoing operations, the airline has cancelled scheduled services to the port until further notice.”

Chief Commercial Officer Paul Abbot assures customers that they are monitoring the situation daily.

“We hope that necessary repairs will be carried out quickly so we can resume services as soon as possible,” he says.

Sergeant Joseph Puang in Goroka says that units are maintaining a vigil over the town area as well as the Genoka settlement  to keep an eye on opportunists who want to take advantage of the situation.

Puang tells PNG Loop that the police are making sure that the Goroka town returns to normal after the town ground to a standstill following the fighting that escalated from the settlement area where the two ethnic groups live.

Meantime by this afternoon the leaders of the two ethnic groups will be meeting with the police to broker a peace deal.

Police report that the fighting stemmed from the new year’s killing of a man from Unggai after some drunkards from Unggai bashed up an Okapa man.

PNG Loop spoke with Sergeant Joseph Puang who says that the fighters have now retreated into their Genoka settlement area.

He says that the fighting started at about 6am and spread through Goroka town with fighters numbering in the hundreds using the town as their battle field.

Bows and arrows and homemade guns were used as police managed to contain the situation.