Middle-East Arab News and Opinion - Asharq Al-Awsat is the world’s premier pan-Arab daily newspaper, printed simultaneously each day on four continents in 14 cities
Cover image of families on Mango Island in the Ha apai group waiting for help after the tsunami hit and destroyed every home. Photo credit: Piokalafi Faka’osi - As communication with Tonga is slowly restored, the devastation to the small island nation is becoming more apparent. So far the oficial fatality number remains at three and Digicel has been able to restore limited international voice and text connectivity via a satellite connection. US cable company SubCom has advised that the best case scenario is four weeks for the cable to be repaired, with the repair ship expected to arrive in Tonga
Tonga faces a long road to recovery, with most of the population affected by the violent eruption and tsunami that followed, and many areas still scrambling to restore basic necessities.