Following a coup in June 2000, the Solomons suffered widespread lawlessness and civil strife, including armed street battles in Honiara. Officials promised to restore law and order, and to that end the Prime Minister brokered a peace agreement in October 2000 between the two major warring factions, the MEF (representing ethnic Malaitans on Guadalcanal Island) and the IFM (representing natives of Guadalcanal).

But violence flared again and many of the NGOs and peacekeepers were pulled out of the Solomon Islands in March 2002. An uneasy stalemate, with jittery and sporadic outbursts of violence, is the order of the day in Malaita Province and rural Guadacanal Province, just outside the capital of Honiara. Most of the major tourist destinations outside these areas reman relatively unaffected but embassies are cautiously warning against all non-essential travel to the islands.