Rescue services on December 17, 2024 in a district of Port Vila, the capital of Vanuatu, hit by a powerful earthquake. STR / AFP A 7.3 magnitude earthquake occurred on Tuesday, December 17, off the coast of Vanuatu, in the Pacific, announced the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The epicenter of this earthquake (initially measured at 7.4 magnitude) was recorded at a depth of 43 kilometers, but only thirty kilometers west of Port Vila, the capital of this island nation, located more than 600 kilometers northeast of New Caledonia. No assessment was yet available but the French ambassador to Vanuatu spoke of “numerous victims in the country”. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a brief tsunami alert, which was quickly lifted. The earthquake severely damaged the building housing the American and French embassies in Port Vila. The French embassy was “destroyed”, announced in a message on X the French ambassador, Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer, who described a building “torn in two”. The staff is “safe and sound” but Mr. Jeangène Vilmer reports “numerous victims in the country”, “suspended flights”, cut communications and “no water or electricity”. “Let’s organize relief,” concluded the ambassador. 
The building housing several embassies in Vanuatu, including that of France, the United States and New Zealand, damaged after the earthquake which hit the country on December 17, 2024. STR / AFP The American embassy closed The US embassy has also “suffered considerable damage and is closed until further notice,” the US diplomatic mission in Papua New Guinea announced in a statement on X. “All staff have been able to to evacuate the building,” she added. According to the French ambassador, the ground floor of the American embassy was “crushed”. “We are closely monitoring the situation in Vanuatu” and “we are ready to provide our support (…) as the extent of the damage is assessed”, declared the Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs in a press release on X “Vanuatu is a family and we will always be there in times of need,” she added. Earthquakes are common in Vanuatu, a low-lying archipelago of 320,000 people that straddles the seismic Pacific Ring of Fire, an arc of intense tectonic activity, stretching from Southeast Asia to the Basin of the Pacific. Vanuatu is ranked among the countries most vulnerable to natural disasters, such as earthquakes, storm damage, floods and tsunamis, according to the annual Global Risks Report. Read also (2022): Article reserved for our subscribers Threatened by global warming, Vanuatu wants to take international legal action to push governments to act Read later Le Monde with AFP Reuse this content
Author : News7
Publish date : 2024-12-17 12:06:25
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