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‘Darkest days’ return to Solomon Islands, as protesters burn Parliament and capital enters lockdown
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| Contributor | IndyGeorgia |
| Last Edited | IndyGeorgia Nov 25, 2021 06:20pm |
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| Category | News |
| Author | Michael E. Miller |
| News Date | Thursday, November 25, 2021 12:05:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The capital of the Solomon Islands is in lockdown after protesters demanding the prime minister’s resignation set fire to Parliament and several other buildings on Wednesday.
In a national address late Wednesday, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare called the riots a “sad and unfortunate event aimed at bringing a democratically elected government down” and announced a 36-hour lockdown to allow authorities to investigate.
“Hundreds of citizens took the law into their own hands today,” he said, claiming they had been “led astray by a few unscrupulous people” whom he did not name but said would soon “face the full brunt of the law.”
Many of the protesters came to the capital, Honiara, on the island of Guadalcanal, from Malaita, the most populous island in the archipelagic nation in the South Pacific, about 1,000 miles from the northeast coast of Australia.
Tensions have simmered between the two islands since the national government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to China in 2019, a move opposed by Malaita’s premier, Daniel Suidani, who claimed he had been offered a bribe to support the switch. Sogavare denied the accusation. |
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