A general view from a New Zealand Defense Force P-3K2 Orion surveillance flight shows heavy ash fall over Nomuka in Tonga after the Pacific island nation was hit by a tsunami triggered by an undersea volcanic eruption, January 17, 2022. /CFP
Speaker of the national assembly of Tonga Fatafehi Fakafanua said on Wednesday that "all agriculture is ruined" in the country after the devastating volcano eruptions.
"It's very sad to hear, so on top of the water that we need in Tonga, it seems that we'll be facing a food shortage," he told the Pacific Media Network.
Tonga on Wednesday finished removing a thick coat of ash from an international runway after days of painstaking effort, clearing the way for desperately needed emergency aid to arrive in the isolated and disaster-stricken nation.
Tonga could receive much-stalled flights from Australia and New Zealand from Thursday, UN crisis coordinator Jonathan Veitch told AFP.
(With input from AFP)