AKIPRESS.COM - Papua New Guinea has declared a state of emergency, suspended a provincial government and is sending armed forces to its rugged highlands to restore order after rioters went on a rampage of looting and burning, Guardian reported citing the government.

Violence has often ravaged the remote interior of the resource-rich Pacific nation, where tribal and land disputes overlay regional politics.

Armed crowds angered over the failure of a court challenge to a regional governor’s election burned an airplane, looted a warehouse and torched buildings in Mendi, the capital of the Southern Highlands province, last week.

“It’s a big, big disruption,” policeman Naring Bongi told Reuters by telephone from Mendi, the capital of the Southern Highlands province, about 500 km (310 miles) northwest of the national capital Port Moresby.

Between 100 and 200 men armed with sticks and guns arrived from surrounding villages in flatbed trucks when they heard of the failure of the court challenge to last September’s election of a political opponent as governor, Bongi said.