Food shortage at border villages

VILLAGERS along the PNG-Indonesian border are now facing a food shortage after being stopped from buying food in Indonesia, local businessman Andrew Kelly says.
“Villages such as Bula, Mari, Jarai and Wereave in South Fly, Western, have harvested almost all their sago palms and are now eating wild berries after the Government stopped them from going to the Indonesian border town of Sota to buy food such as rice, flour and sugar,” he said.
“They are also experiencing food shortages as their gardens were been impacted by flooding.”
Kelly, who is the Fimirose Marine Resource managing director, said last Sunday that all land entry points were manned by PNG Defence Force soldiers and it was hard for the villagers to cross into Sota.
“The provincial Covid-19 task force has to help provide basic foods such as rice, sugar and flour to the villagers because if they don’t, then the people will suffer from food shortages and not the Covid-19.”
Kelly said since South Fly MP Sekie Agisa and Western Governor Awi Yoto were funding the task force team, they should also buy relief food supplies for these villages during this time of need.
He said the Australian government was providing relief supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic to Australian communities living in the Torres Strait islands in Far North Queensland which was just three nautical miles (5.5km) away from the PNG border.