Residents in the capital of the Solomon Islands, Honiara, have welcomed the restoration of law and order after police and defence personnel from PNG and Australia arrived in the city.
After three days of rioting that saw buildings burnt to the ground, residents emerged from their houses to buy food and refuel their vehicles with petrol.
"I have confidence that we are in better position. We can move around because of the support we have received," Caritas Australia's Rose Everlyn Clough told SBS News from Honiara.
"The women and children were able to come out of our homes because we were seeing Australian personnel there to support the law and order."
Shops and businesses opened for the first time since the riots, which has resulted in three deaths.
But prices for food staples like 10kg bags of rice have doubled.
Honiara resident Simon Abana said he managed to find a handful of petrol stations open but with long queues.
"One of our fears is the impact on the food situation after the riots," he told SBS News.
"Most of the homes, most of the families have a limited supply of food. And some are running out of electricity as well.
"Here we used prepaid house power and also water as well."
Australian-led effort to last weeks, Minister Birmingham says
For three straight days, angry mobs cut through the usually sleepy seaside capital, demanding the removal of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare.
Two years of pandemic-induced closed borders have left the already ravaged Solomons economy in tatters, deepening widespread joblessness and poverty among the population of around 800,000.
Local police said a forensic team was working to identify the charred remains of three bodies found in a shop in the city's burnt-out Chinatown district.
Heavily armed police were a visible presence on nearby streets as locals began clean up operations and limited bus services resumed.
A night-time curfew and the presence of roughly 150 foreign peacekeepers from Australia and Papua New Guinea appeared to have helped cool tensions.
Senior federal minister Simon Birmingham says the contingent is likely to be deployed to Australia's troubled Pacific near neighbour for a matter of weeks rather than months.
"At this very early stage, our officials and forces on the ground are working hard to help to provide that restoration of peace," he told reporters in Adelaide on Saturday.
"They are, I believe, a respected and welcome force on the ground by the people in the Solomon Islands.
"The work at present is to get that stability there."
Australia initially deployed 23 Australian Federal Police officers, including tactical response teams. An additional 50 agents and 43 ADF members have since been dispatched as well as a patrol boat.
Papua New Guinea has also sent 50 police.
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said on Friday Australian forces had been armed with lethal and non-lethal weapons.
While there is no exact figure, an estimated 200 Australian citizens in total are in the country.
PM blames foreign powers, while others point to domestic factors
Mr Sogavare imposed a lockdown in Honiara for 36 hours along with a curfew in a bid to quell the unrest, which ended on Friday morning.
He blames foreign powers for encouraging the unrest.
But Solomons Opposition Leader Matthew Wale has accused the government of taking bribes from China, saying people are protesting the current regime's corruption.
Many of the protesters are said to resent the government over its 2019 decision to end diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish formal links with China.
Jonathan Pryke, director of the Sydney-based Lowy Institute think tank's Pacific Islands program, said unemployment and frustrations with Mr Sogavare's government were factors underlying the riots.
"Most of the drivers of the tension have been in the country for many decades and generations, and a lot of it is borne out of the abject poverty of the country, the limited economic development opportunities and the inter-ethnic and inter-island rivalry between the two most populous islands," he said.
"So everyone's pointing fingers, but some fingers also need to be pointed at the political leaders of the Solomon Islands."
Mr Birmingham refused to be drawn on the reasons for the unrest.
"We don't wish to draw into the political commentary that relates to this," he said.
"Our concern is for the people of the Solomon Islands and ensuring that they can enjoy the type of peace and security that they deserve."
Additional reporting: AAP, AFP
