Papua New Guinea: Prime Minister declares state of emergency due to unrest

The Prime Minister of Papua New GuineaJames Marape, declared this Thursday a state of emergency in his country due to riots in several cities that caused the death of at least sixteen people.

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Marapé announced that the measure will initially remain in force for fourteen days and that a thousand Army soldiers are waiting to be called up if there is an escalation of violence, according to the Australian media outlet ABC published today.

Nine people died in the capital, Port Moresby, while seven others died in Lae, the country’s second largest city. Papua New Guineaaccording to official data.

O agitation They began after a peaceful protest called on Wednesday by the Police and other security agents for cutting their salaries and those of other employees that turned violent when it was used by other citizens to carry out looting and set fires in the capital and other places. cities.

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Videos posted on social media show burning warehouses and crowds engaged in looting, which spread to other regions and continued until the early hours of Thursday morning, according to local newspaper Post-Courier.

Before the riots, around 200 police, military and prison officers called a strike and entered Parliament peacefully on Wednesday to protest the increase in taxes on civil servants’ salaries, which led to a cut in their salaries.

Marapé and his office then stated that the salary reduction was not deliberate and was due to a technical failure, and assured that the employees would be reimbursed.

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Furthermore, Marapé This morning he asked the population in a public event not to “take to the streets” and stressed that it is imperative that the country regains security, after having authorized the Army to participate the day before to “restore” order.

Papua New Guineaa nation rich in resources that has a large part of its twelve million inhabitants in extreme poverty, is isolated by connection and infrastructure problems, especially in remote areas where security and basic health and education services are scarce.

Independent from Australia in 1975, this country – whose government signed a security agreement with Canberra in December that includes financial aid to modernize its police forces – also has a long history of political intrigue, corruption and internal conflict.

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U.S and Australia, its strategic ally in Oceania, redoubled its relationship with several Pacific island nations after China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in April 2022.

Source: Elcomercio

jack

I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.