Solomon Islands Police

The Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation said the boat left Gizo on Saturday, January 1, for the Shortland Islands.

Sibere Tauroa from Taro police, who is supervising a search operation, said among the 14 missing are women and two children - a nine-year-old and a four-year-old.

Mr Tauroa told SIBC News that two boats left Gizo on Saturday and travelled alongside each other destined for the Shortland Islands.

Police said the man posted on Facebook that there was already a case of the coronavirus in Solomon Islands.

Police said this is not true and the country has no confirmed cases of Covid-19.

The supervising assistant commissioner for crime and intelligence, Patricia Leta said the man has been charged with spreading false rumours and released on bail to appear in court on 14 April.

"It is a serious offence to spread false rumours that cause public disharmony."

The boat set out from Gizo in Western Province in a north-east direction on January 15 bound for South Choiseul with five men, two women and two children onboard.

Five days later, a search party found the boat capsized to the east of their destination, near Kia in Isabel Province, with no sign of those who were on board.

Police superintended Vincent Eria said it was believed the boat flipped when it encountered rough seas during the 100km journey.

"The boat was found floating upside down with the 40 horsepower outboard motor," he said.

Peter Shanel and other police ministers of Melanesian Spearhead Group member countries had a conference in Jakarta this month, following meetings of MSG police commissioners.

Mr Shanel told the Solomon Star that a draft Memorandum of Understanding between the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and the Indonesian National Police was expected to be signed soon.

The draft MoU was focused on co-operation to prevent and combat transnational crimes and building international police capacity.

On Monday 60 members of the local community on Rendova were arrested by police after a week long standoff with foreign loggers at the Vasara logging camp.

Commissioner Matthew Varley said the arrests were a last resort and were only made after several days of attempting to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Mr Varley said it was important that the Solomons public understands that the role of police in such situations is simply to keep the peace and enforce law and order, not to determine whether a logging operation was operating illegally or not.