RSIPF officers provide security for SOLMAT at border between SI-PNG

Officers of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) deployed to the common border between Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea are providing security to members of the Solomon Island Medical Assistance Team (SOLMAT) who are at the common border region while they do their work in different communities in the Shortland Islands.

Commander of the Police Forward Command Post (PFCP) at the Kulitanai Police Station, in the Shortlands, Western Province Inspector Wilken Miriki says, “Today (19 May 2020) police provided security for the team while they did an awareness meetings at Harapa and Gaomai villages.”

Inspector Miriki says, “As Health is the leading government agency in the fight against the COVID-19, police is merely there to provide security to support them carry out their awareness in the different communities in the Shortland Islands.”

“The SOLMAT officers were divided into two groups. The first group did awareness at Harapa as well as train police officers on the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and check the clinic. The other group travelled to Gaomai Village to check the clinic and do awareness on hand washing.”

“During the awareness at Gaomai a domestic violence incident happened and police officers attended to it and mediated the issue and warned a man from Bougainville who got married to a woman at the Village,” says Inspector Miriki.