By Gabriel Katuho
Seven men, three women and two children went missing on Wednesday while travelling on a boat (Dingy) from Buka to Nissan Island (200 Km North-West of Bougainville).
Sources from Buka said that the 12 people from the Pinipel Island went missing on Wednesday after leaving Buka for Nissan Island. They are supposed to reach Nissan in roughly 2 hours and continue north to Pinepel Island. However; that did not happen.
Sources said that they reported the Disaster center and several authorities in Buka after no trace of them were alerted.
“We do not know what happened to them. They must have been swept by a tidal wave or being hijacked by pirates.” A source said.
This is the fifth incident where people went missing without any trace or bodies being retrieved.
Sources said that in the 1990s a family got missing while travelling to Buka from Nissan and ended up at Fiji and were sent back to the PNG. The second simillar incident happened where the people from the island ended up at Russel Island in the Milne Bay province of PNG and were flown back to Bougainville.
The families are worried and are appealing to general public and coastal villages in PNG and the Pacific to report to nearby authorities if they happen to see them drift offshore.
