At the edge of the prime minister’s compound, hundreds of protesters tugged at the gates and set a guard booth on fire.
“We are not calling in the Australians,” Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea told a reporter visiting him in his office.
“We can handle this ourselves.”Last week’s deadly unrest caught officials unaware and left Mr. Marape grappling with a fast-moving crisis.
Papua New Guinea has a very large youth population, but few jobs to offer its young people, making economic hardship even more severe.
Within hours, Port Moresby, the capital, was rocked by a level of violence it had not seen in decades.
Persons:
James Marape
Organizations:
Bullets, ”
Locations:
Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby