Authorities in Fiji have distributed 10,000 food packs to people affected by Cyclone Yasa, as the aid effort in the country’s north gets underway.
The cyclone tore across the northern island of Vanua Levu on Thursday night as a category five, destroying entire villages and leaving thousands homeless.
A journalist on Vanua Levu, Serafina Silaitoga, said government relief teams arrived on Sunday.
“We’re expecting about 50 military officers who will be in Vanua Levu to assist the government officials,” she said.
About 7,000 people remain in evacuation centres across the country, the government said. The death toll currently stands at four, although local media are carrying reports of several people still missing.
The UN resident coordinator in Fiji, Sanaka Samarasinha, said the cyclone had tore a 100km path of destruction across the island.
He said a large-scale response would be needed, one that would involve international help.
“These people were already quite vulnerable to begin with,” Samarasinha said. “We’re talking about poor farmers, informal labourers, their vulnerabilities are totally exposed [by the cyclone].”
“The people who have been affected have been affected very badly,” he said.
Members of the Fiji military, as well as government and UN teams were deployed to the north on Sunday.
An Australian plane laden with relief supplies has already landed, and a New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules spent the weekend conducting two assessment flights; one over Vanua Levu, the other over the eastern Lau group of islands.
Source:RNZI
