About 5000 people living on Papua New Guinea's volcanic Manam Island are reluctant to evacuate after the weekend's major eruption.
A picture of a flash of lava from the erupting volcano on Manam Island, Papua New Guinea. The island is one of the country's most active volcanoes. Photo: Supplied / Scott Waide
EMTV reporter Scott Waide said these are people who returned to the island after about 25,000 Manam Islanders were evacuated following an eruption in 2004.
Mr Waide said those earlier evacuees were taken to five care centres on the mainland at Bogia where they continue to reside 14 years later.
He said the PNG Defence Force sent an engineering battalion to the island on Monday to assess the people's needs.
"They number about 5000 on the island. They're spread out over several communities. Some live very close to the area where the lava flow has happened," Scott Waide said.
"They are very sceptical about any move to evacuate them. I don't know about the current situation, whether they will be moved off the island, and from pictures shared yesterday they will have to move because vegetation is destroyed, their food gardens are destroyed and their water sources as well."
Scott Waide said Manam Islanders in Bogia feel forgotten by the government as no plan was made to resettle them.
"They've been there for 14 years with no certainty of resettlement. In Papua New Guinea land it is a very sensitive issue that follows lineages. So having an island population on the mainland on somebody elses land creates a whole new set of complications."