Nafanua II

The boat has been pledged by the Australian government to celebrate 50 years of diplomatic ties with Samoa.

The pledge was announced by the Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong after meeting with the Prime Minister, Fame Naomi Mata’afa on Thursday.

Fiame was grateful for the assistance and said “I think it’s very generous on the part of the Australian Government and people in gifting us another patrol boat despite the unfortunate circumstances of our last boat.”

The patrol boat remains "high and dry" at Portsmith shipyard allegedly "amid an international stalemate about who is going to pick up a multi-million-dollar repair bill."

An Australia Defence spokesman is quoted by the Samoa Observer saying that Samoan authorities had been provided with an assessment of the damage but he did not say if the Australian taxpayers would pay the bill.

Samoa Minister of Police, Faualo Harry Schuster, told the Samoa Observer that government was still awaiting a report from Australia on the Nafanua II maintenance status.

Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa said the Commission of Inquiry was waiting for reports from several ministries involved in the Nafanua II incident like the Ministry of Police.

“Now that the reports have been made ready hence, we’ll leave it now to the selected Commission of Inquiry to begin their investigations so we can get complete results on this matter,” Fiame said.

An advance team from Australia was in the country to stablise the boat and tow it off the reef.

The Australian-donated patrol boat ran aground not far from the wharf on the 4th of August. 

At the time of the grounding, the Nafanua was transporting police to Savai'i ahead of a political protest by the former Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi and his supporters.

The Government will decide about the future of the patrol boat when it receives a report from Australia.

The Samoa Observer reports a salvage team from Australia and a guard boat are in Savai'i to remove the badly damaged vessel from the reef and to transport it to Australia for further assessment and repair.

Deputy Police Commissioner, Auapaau Logoitino Filipo said if the operation, which started yesterday, goes as planned the 30 million dollar boat will likely leave Samoan waters by next week.

He said a barge will be used to test if it can tow the Nafanua II to Australia.

Superintendent Sefo Faafoi Hunt, who was the vessel's commanding officer, has been suspended while a police probe and a commission of inquiry into the running aground of the patrol boat on a reef near Salelologa wharf on Savaii island continues.

The vessel, which was only commissioned in 2019, ran aground nearly four weeks ago after transporting police officers from Apia to Savai'i to help their colleagues there during a Human Rights Protection party protest.

The Samoan government responded by sending a team of two doctors, two nurses on the Nafanua II on Tuesday.

The successful medical operation was conducted for 6 hours on Wednesday 17 June 2020.

Nafanua II and its crew with the Samoan Health Officials returned on Thursday and arrived early Friday morning.

A statement said the humanitarian efforts illustrate co-operation between Samoa Police and its other stakeholder partners such as the Ministry of Health and Tokelau Office.

The ceremony was officiated by the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi who in his remarks expressed Samoa’s gratitude to the Government of Australia, for their generous contribution to the Pacific Region and Samoa.

“On behalf of the Samoan Government, I wish to extend our most sincere appreciation to the Government of Australia for its ongoing contribution to the Pacific Region and especially to Samoa,” said the Prime Minister.