A state of emergency has been declared in the capital of the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu after clashes between islanders over claims of witchcraft killed two men and wounded 10 people.
Some 200 people from Tanna and Ambrym islands clashed in Port Vila on Saturday after the recent death of a woman, married to a Tanna man, was blamed on witchcraft, police said.
One man was stabbed to death in the initial fighting on the outskirts of Port Vila and another was killed and houses were destroyed in retaliation later on Saturday night.
Secretary General of Vanuatu's National Council of Chiefs Selwyn Garu
Police said Port Vila had been quiet since the fighting on Saturday and that 140 people had been arrested.
A state of emergency covering the capital was declared by the president last night and will continue for two weeks, banning any public assemblies.
But Vanuatu's National Council of Chiefs said the government overreacted in declaring a state of emergency.
"The State of Emergency is like preparing for a cyclone that has already passed," the council's secretary general, Selwyn Garu, said today. "The State of Emergency thing will affect the country - I mean, tourism - for really no good reason at all."
Vanuatu, with a population of around 200,000 people, comprises more than 80 mountainous islands and lies about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to Australia.