Japanese Foreign Affair Minister Visits Hells Point

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Team of the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) has welcomed His Excellency Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan during a brief visit to the Hells Points facilities on 19 March 2023.

During the visit,Hayashi was greeted by the Permanent Secretary (PS) of the Ministry of Police, National Security and Correctional Services (MPNSCS), Ms Karen Galokale and the RSIPF Commissioner Police Mr Mostyn Mangau.

A short presentation was conducted to project the overview of the EOD on how they have been dealing with the Unexploded Ordnances (UXO)’s for the past years. The presentation also highlighted big deposits of the UXOs in the country.

The EOD team also led the minister and his delegation to the bomb storage facilities where they looked at some of the live bombs stored awaiting for demolition. Few questions have been asked and clarified during the presentation and at the live bomb storage facilities.

Commissioner of RSIPF Mr. Mostyn Mangau thanked the government and the people of Japan for the great support rendered to RSIPF.

Japan has injected more than US seven hundred thousand dollars to boost the capability of the EOD Teams and help them to keep our citizens safe from risk posed by the World War II remnant.

Mangau said the UXO support project between donor partners for the continuous training, advising, mentoring, advancing and improvement of RSIPF EOD to remain capable of dealing with explosive ordnance. It will also provide the team with the capacity to increase UXO activities in remote provinces and ultimately assist with supporting the future UXO survey in the Solomon Islands.

Mr Mangau said the support project also supplements the Solomon Islands whole of government initiative to the UXO problem and will greatly assist with future expansion of the EOD team.

PS Galokale has thanked His Excellency Hayashi on behalf of the Minister of MPNSCS Mr Anthony Veke for his visit.