January 18, 2022

Tonga is facing an “unprecedented disaster” from a massive volcanic eruption that covered the nation in ash and 15-metre tsunami waves that destroyed almost all the homes on two small islands, the government has said.

Hampered by a communications breakdown caused by the severing of a major undersea cable, authorities had not released an official update since the blast on Saturday, when the Pacific island nation was shaken by what may have been the largest volcanic event in three decades.

Since then, information on the scale of the devastation had mostly come from reconnaissance aircraft.

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