A crew of specialists in emergency telecommunications is taking off on Tuesday from Télécoms Sans Frontières' Asia and Pacific base situated on the campus of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) to strengthen the coordination of relief teams supporting tsunami affected population in the Solomon Islands. TSF is notably deployed to support the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination teams (UNDAC).

Following the tsunami provoked by an earthquake measured 8.0 on the Richter scale with its epicentre situated 350km North West of Honiara, capital of Solomons, the archipelago's government declared state of emergency on Monday evening. A tsunami alert was sent to many regions of the Pacific short after the quake.

Communications have been disrupted in several affected zones and upon arrival TSF will immediately put satellite communications equipment available in order to facilitate the first assessments and ensure reliable communication between the field and organizations head offices. TSF's specialists in emergency telecommunications are carrying three mobile satellite data transmitters (Inmarsat Bgan and RBgan terminals) and satellite phones (Thrane & Thrane Mini M terminals) enabling to deploy communication centres with broadband Internet, phone and fax lines and other IT equipment.

According to the latest official report, which is still temporary notably due to telecommunications problems, the tsunami killed 24 people and left nearly 6 000 homeless.

TSF is ready to deploy more crews from France depending on the needs of rescue teams and of affected civilians.

This mission is coordinated with the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN OCHA) and funded by the Vodafone Group Foundation, the United Nations Foundation and TSF's other partners.

This is the 6th deployment of TSF with the United Nations since signing the agreement with UN OCHA and Unicef in May 2006. Previously, TSF deployed to Suriname (May), to Indonesia (June), the Democratic Republic of Congo (August), Lebanon (August) and most recently to Mozambique following the floods and hurricane Favio which hit the country affecting more than 500 000 people in February and March 2007. In Mozambique, the three communication centres deployed by TSF benefited to 27 organizations during the first phase of the emergency response.