Vanuatu opens negligence investigation after MV Matui sinks with more than 30 missing

Search continues between Santo and Ambae

Vanuatu has opened a negligence investigation after the inter-island vessel MV Matui sank during a voyage from Santo to Ambae, leaving more than 30 people missing. The ship departed on Friday with more than 40 passengers and crew in very rough seas and failed to reach its destination. By Sunday, authorities said 15 people had been accounted for alive and one body had been recovered.

The search has drawn in local responders, the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in New Caledonia and a French Armed Forces aircraft. Twelve people were located on Sunday morning, according to the coordination centre. Search teams were concentrating on the south-eastern coastline, where currents were thought capable of carrying people who survived the sinking. The operation remained active when the latest figures were published.

Warnings and vessel loading face scrutiny

The prime minister's office said investigators would examine whether marine warnings were ignored and whether overloading contributed to the loss. Those are preliminary lines of inquiry, not established causes. The immediate priorities are finding survivors, reconciling the passenger manifest and determining the vessel's condition, loading and decision-making before departure. The official toll may change as search teams locate people or clarify who was aboard.

The episode exposes the dependence of Vanuatu's dispersed island communities on maritime transport. Santo and Ambae are separated by open water, making passenger vessels essential for family travel, commerce and access to services. When communications, manifests or rescue capacity are limited, a missing inter-island ship can quickly become a national emergency. French assistance also illustrates how Pacific search-and-rescue operations often require cooperation across territorial jurisdictions.

A disaster-prone state tests its response systems

In an April statement to the United Nations, Vanuatu described itself as one of the world's most disaster-prone countries and outlined a national information system intended to improve real-time crisis decisions. That background does not establish the cause of this sinking or connect it to climate change. It does, however, show why the speed and accuracy of emergency information are central concerns for a country exposed to severe weather and other natural hazards.

The next verifiable milestones will be an updated survivor count, a confirmed number of passengers and crew, recovery of the vessel or its records, and initial findings from the negligence inquiry. Investigators will need to distinguish the effects of sea conditions from possible failures involving capacity limits, maintenance, navigation or compliance with warnings. Until that work is complete, responsibility for the loss should not be assigned.