Results for Tonga

An escaped convict, ‘Amoni Fifita (34), was sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Tonga Supreme Court for the armed robbery of a store in Kolovai last year 2017. The getaway driver and father of 16 children, Pakileata Fukofuka (48), was sentenced to 3½ years jail with 18 months suspended.

The Tonga Supreme Court has acquitted a teenager on charges of knowingly having consensual intercourse with a 14-year girl in 2017. The court accepted that the accused, who was 18 years old at the time, believed that the girl was 17 years and would not have had sexual intercourse with the girl if he knew she was 14. The girl became pregnant as a consequence.

Two severely injured cyclone victims remain stable in Vaiola Hospital today. A man, 'Ofila Havea, suffered a severe spinal injury at Popua, and a woman, Ying Wang, sustained severe head injuries at Ma'ufanga, during Tropical Cyclone Gita on the night of February 12.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has given $6 million to Tonga for early recovery activities following the destruction caused by Tropical Cyclone Gita last week. Rehabilitation costs for electricity, water and sanitation, schools, and other sectors are likely to be very significant, said Hon Poasi Tei, Acting Minister for Finance and National Planning.

A fleet of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones) have been transported to Tonga with the support of the Australian government, to provide a comprehensive visual assessment of the damage caused by Cyclone Gita, the World Bank reports today. Tonga has also received a payout of more than US$3.5 million from the Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company – the first payout made by the insurance platform established in 2016.

Around 14,000 Tongan students will be able to return to school soon with new emergency education supplies provided by UNICEF in partnership with the NZ Defence Force, after Cyclone Gita damaged around 129 classrooms in 83 primary and secondary schools in southern Tonga last week.

When Cyclone Gita blasted a dilapidated little Tongan fale into Fanga 'Uta Lagoon on the night of Monday February 13, home to a non-conformist Tongan artists group, the ferocious winds could not destroy the creative spirit of the Seleka International Art Society Initiative.

Seven men aged 20-35 years were arrested when a police operation seized unlicensed firearms, ammunition and cannabis.

Bank South Pacific (BSP) Tonga has donated $30,000 to Tonga Red Cross relief program to support the victims affected by Cyclone Gita. Sione Taumoefolau, Secretary Generale for Tonga Red Cross Society said “this will go a long way in assisting their work in hiring trucks to deliver aid to affected areas, feeding the volunteers and other needed support.”