Ifira is an offshore island of efate located in

Shefa Province Shefa is one of the six provinces of Vanuatu, located in the center of the country and including the islands of Epi and Efate and the Shepherd Islands. The province's name is derived from the initial letters of SHepherd and EFAte. It has a populat ...

Vanuatu Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...

in the Pacific Ocean.

Geography

Ifira lies off the coast of

Efate Island Efate (french: Éfaté) is an island in the Pacific Ocean which is part of the Shefa Province in Vanuatu. It is also known as Île Vate. Geography It is the most populous (approx. 66,000) island in Vanuatu. Efate's land area of makes it Vanua ...

in Vila harbour. Ifira spans about from the north to the south and from the east to the west. There is newly completed Lapetasi International Container Terminal on the island. The estimated terrain elevation above the sea level is some .

Population

As of 2015, the official local population was 721 people in 146 households. Local people speak

Mele-Ifira language Mele-Fila (Ifira-Mele) is a Polynesian language spoken in Mele (island), Mele and Ifira on the island of Efate in Vanuatu. In spite of their differences, Mele and Fila are two dialects of the same language and are mutually intelligible. French an ...

(or Ifira-Mele) which is a

Polynesian language The Polynesian languages form a genealogical group of languages, itself part of the Oceanic branch of the Austronesian family. There are 38 Polynesian languages, representing 7 percent of the 522 Oceanic languages, and 3 percent of the Austron ...

also spoken in

Mele Mele () is a ''Comune'' (Municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa in the Italian region Liguria, located about west of Genoa. Mele borders the following municipalities: Genoa, Masone Masone ( or ) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the ...

and Efate.

References

{{authority control Islands of Vanuatu Shefa Province