Solomons faces a 'rapidly worsening' humanitarian crisis

The Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce warns the 'worst is yet to come' as the country battles a humanitarian crisis brought on by last week's political unrest.

Aid agencies are preparing for food shortages in the Pacific island nation's devastated capital Honiara.

The crisis erupted last week with three days of rioting, blamed partly on poverty, hunger and frustration with government policies.

There are 700,000 people in the Solomons, with about 75,000 in Honiara.

The conflict claimed at least three lives as crowds tried to torch the prime minister's private residence before being dispersed by police.

Chamber chair Ricky Fuo'o said food supplies were becoming scarce.

"Rice is the main staple food especially in Honiara City. Most of the Chinese shops and the wholesalers were looted and burned.

"There isn't a lot of food to go around so I fear for the worst. The worst is yet to come especially with food shortages."

Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and Australia have deployed security personnel to assist the local authorities.

Fuo'o said while security was key to restoring peace following last week's political unrest, the government must also address the humanitarian crisis.

Rioters burned and looted businesses during the three-day conflict and this meant many of them were closed, he said.

Fuo'o is also concerned food prices have increased across the city.

"People live off like a salary and most of the government workers haven't received their salaries. Most of the private sector, since Wednesday all of these, all the banks are closed.

"The advice is stock up, ration up on food, hold onto a bit of cash, save money because I think the worst is yet to come."

Unrest exacerbated weakened economy - CBSI

The business community in the Solomon Islands is preparing for any further unrest in Honiara.

Close to 1000 workers in the city had no jobs to return to this week.

An initial government assessment also showed more than 50 businesses were either torched or looted.

The Central Bank of Solomon Islands (CBSI) said the loss to the local economy is estimated at $US28 million.

In a statement, the bank's Governor Luke Forau said the country was already struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr Forau said the recent political unrest has further exacerbated the weakened economy.

Namoi Kaluae's 10-year printing business in Ranadi was among the dozens of buildings destroyed.

Kaluae said more than 30 employees from the three businesses in their building have been sent home because "there's no work to return to this week."

The Adkonect owner said she also lost more than 200 customers.

"It's one of the darkest days in our country," Kaluae said.

"We tried to get a fire truck to come but that was very difficult as well because of the road-blocks and there was a lot of people just standing in the road. So there was nothing we could do - just a feeling of helplessness and scary.

"Just looking at people's faces and knowing that 'oh my goodness, these people are capable of doing anything'."

Kaluae has yet to carry out an assessment on the full extent of the damage to their three-storey building.

Food, cash, fuel in short supply - chamber

The Chamber of Commerce said bank ATMs were starting to run out of cash and there have been long lines.

With a curfew in place, Chamber chair Ricky Fuo'o said they were working with police to assist residents and ensure the security protocols were followed.

Fuo'o said the capital was going to be put on high alert for the next couple of weeks.

"Movement will still be restricted and there will still be curfews because of the motion of no confidence and the result is not what the people are after, then our main fear is there will be another civil unrest with rioting and looting and stuff like that."

The government announced last weekend it is working on a recovery package to help damaged businesses recover.

Namoi Kaluae said they would need all the help they could get from the government to rebuild.

"The prime minister gave some remarks [on Sunday]. He mentioned recovery packages for business houses.

"We don't know whether that is going to affect us or whether that is going to come directly to us, you know."

Meanwhile, Parliament resumed this week and extended the Covid-19 State of Public Emergency.

The motion of no confidence, filed by the opposition leader Matthew Wale, against Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has been set for 6 December.

Wale said he still did not have the numbers for the motion to pass, after only three resignations from Sogavare's government so far.

In 2006, following the election of then-prime minister Snyder Rini, rioters looted and burned Chinese-owned businesses, after claims the election had been rigged with the financial assistance of Chinese businesspeople.

Riots again broke out after Sogavare was elected for the fourth time in 2019.

Sogavare has since defied pressure to resign.