Aitape

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Aitape
Aitape (lower right) and Tumleo Island (left)
Aitape Location within Sandaun Province Show map of Sandaun Province Aitape Aitape (Papua New Guinea) Show map of Papua New Guinea
Coordinates: 3°8′S 142°21′E / 3.133°S 142.350°E / -3.133; 142.350
Country	Papua New Guinea
Province	Sandaun Province (West Sepik)
LLG	East Aitape Rural LLG
Established	1905
Elevation	4 m (12 ft)
Population
• Total	18,000
• Rank	10th
Time zone	UTC+10 (AEST)
Location	126 km (78 mi) ESE of Vanimo 148 km (92 mi) WNW of Wewak
Climate	Af

Aitape is a small town of about 18,000 people on the north coast of Papua New Guinea in the Sandaun Province. It is a coastal settlement that is almost equidistant from the provincial capitals of Wewak and Vanimo, and marks the midpoint of the highway between these two capitals. Aitape has 240 V power (in general 24 hours), telephone, a bank, a post-office, a courthouse and a police station, a supermarket and many tradestores, a petrol station, two airstrips, two secondary schools, a mission office and a hospital.^[1]

Aitape was established as a train station by German colonists in 1905 as part of German New Guinea. During the Second World War the town was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army.