Vanimo

​Measles outbreak in Vanimo

The National Department of Health has confirmed this, reporting three villages in Vanimo-Green District affected.

NDoH also noted a quick response from the provincial team in sending a vaccination crew to schools and villages to vaccinate children enrolled from grades 1-8 and under five within the catchment area.

In a statement, Secretary for Health, Pascoe Kase, confirmed the province has 18,000 doses of measles vaccine available for the targeted population.

​Mobile squad restores order

“Despite a few law and order problems encountered where drunken youths travel around, threatening voters to vote for certain candidates, everything is quiet now,” says a member of the Special Services Division (SSD).

"Vanimo is quiet, polling is going well."

The 13-man team landed in the Sandaun capital last Tuesday morning.

“We SSD personnel are also assisting our counterparts from PNG Defence Force to patrol our international border,” Loop PNG was told.

PNG Air’s new aircraft to help travelling public

Chief commercial officer for PNG Air, Paul Abbot says that with the arrival of the forth new ATR early this month, the domestic schedule now offers further significant improvements for travellers in PNG.

Abbot says it will also increase frequency on a number of ports that they will be commencing ATR operations into Daru and Vanimo as well as resuming operations into Alotau.

PPC alleges operation of scooter trade by syndicate

The motorised vehicles then get registered and licensed in Vanimo to use the public roads.

Sandaun Provincial Police Commander Robert Gesa told Loop PNG in Vanimo that investigations have already started.

“How they are brought in is questionable and we are working on it.

 “Many of them are brought in illegally through bush tracks; not through the border at Wutung.

“My concern is how they get registered to run on PNG soil.

Securities at borders must be strengthened before APEC meet: PPC

Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby will host the APEC leaders’ summit and will be the biggest security test for the country since gaining independence in 1975.

PPC Gesa told Loop PNG in Vanimo that security must not only be concentrated in Port Moresby because any person can cross into the unmanned borders of Sandaun and Western provinces and travel to Port Moresby and stage an attack.  

He also revealed that intelligence officers from Papua New Guinea and Australia visited Vanimo on a fact finding mission this week.   

Vanimo FODE centre now connect with the world

The trip was very significant to Stallmeister because she was new in Papua New Guinea and has never travelled to the West Sepik Province.

The launching of the internet connectivity was an opportunity for her to connect the work of the World Bank with one of the remote provinces in Papua New Guinea.

This Christmas I want to escape

Unfortunately, I am about 993 km or 2 hours 45 minutes by plane away from Vanimo.

I will be working in my newsroom, and collecting stories while trying to push away that feeling of sadness that I am not walking along that white sandy beach or swimming in the clear tranquil sea.

But then again, home is where my heart is, and this Christmas my heart will be with my family, loved ones and friends.

Two charged in PNG for Indonesian hostage affair

This follows reports from Indonesia that two Indonesian logging workers who had been held hostage in Skoutio village of PNG's West Sepik province for around a week were rescued late last week by PNG Defence Force soldiers.

The pair were reportedly kidnapped earlier this month by an armed group while cutting wood in Indonesia's Keerom regency, a three-hour walk from Skoutio.

The kidnappers had also shot a person who was later treated at hospital in Jayapura.

Indonesian pair detained in PNG near border

While it remains unclear who is detaining the pair, they are being held in the Skouw area, with Indonesian media reporting that the information has been relayed by PNG defence force personnel.

The Jakarta Post reports the Indonesian Consul in Vanimo, Elmar Lubi, as saying two men aged 28 and 30, who work in the logging sector, were captured on Wednesday while working in Skofro hamlet in Indonesia's Kerom regency.