Source: New Zealand Defence Force
10 September 2026
Residents and workers in one of Kiribati’s most densely populated communities are now safer after a joint Kiribati-New Zealand operation to safely dispose of hundreds of Second World War-era unexploded ordnance (UXO) items in Betio, Kiribati.
Supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, a Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J and crew, personnel from the New Zealand Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Squadron, New Zealand Army 2nd Engineer Regiment Zodiac operators, and medical personnel deployed recently to Kiribati to carry out the task.
The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) team worked alongside members of the Kiribati Police Service for a week to maintain a cordon and move approximately 300 items by road from Bonnyman’s Bunker and then by small boat to an isolated and uninhabited sandbar for safe disposal.
Six of the items were eight-inch shells weighing 120kg each, with 9.7kg of that being explosives.
Some of the UXO items were in such a severely degraded condition that they had to be detonated inside the bunker, requiring 7000 nearby residents to be evacuated.
EOD operators placed numerous sandbags inside the bunker to prevent widespread damage, and the heavy construction of the bunker meant the majority of the blast and fragmentation was contained.
NZDF Senior National Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Cameron Wright, said the operation was a great example of New Zealand working with Pacific partners to safely dispose of dangerous items left behind after the Second World War.
“This has been a real team effort. We would like to acknowledge the leadership of the Government of Kiribati, the support and assistance of the Kiribati Police Service, and the Betio community, which enabled us to successfully carry out the operation.”
The NZDF and Kiribati Police Service will continue to cooperate closely on EOD issues, including building Kiribati’s EOD expertise to safely identify and secure any future items discovered.
This deployment builds on a successful run of NZDF UXO disposal operations throughout the Pacific, with recent operations in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Naoero (formerly Nauru).
The number of UXO items destroyed differs to the earlier media release as an estimate had been made looking at the UXO from outside the bunker. The true number could be determined once the operation to move the ordnance began.