At least seven people were killed on May 31 when a World War II bomb exploded in Fandoi village on Indonesia’s Biak Island.Interviews with officials indicate the explosion occurred while an unexploded wartime ordnance was being dismantled to recover explosives for illegal blast fishing.The HALO Trust estimates that unexploded bombs and ammunition have killed or injured around 25,000 people in neighboring Papua New Guinea since the end of the World War II, reflecting the region’s enduring wartime legacy.A casualty estimate for the Indonesian territory of the New Guinea archipelago is unclear.
BIAK, Indonesia — The munition here had outlasted one of the Pacific’s fiercest World War II battles. Eight decades later, investigators in Indonesia said it exploded by the timber-framed houses in the coastal village of Fandoi on Indonesia’s Biak Island.
The blast killed at least seven people and injured around 20, many seriously, police told journalists. Fandoi village head Frans Rumsarwir said two fishers remained missing since the blast.
“Lai was sawing, while Nando used a chisel,” Frans said, referring to two fishers by their given names.
A World War II bomb had exploded in the village. Investigators and officials later concluded two local fishers were dismantling an unexploded munition recovered from coastal waters off Papua, where some of the Pacific’s most intense fighting took place in 1944.
