Bougainville is a name I remember mostly from WWII. I hadn't known their recent-ish civil war was so bad.

The main thing to know about Bougainville is that they have the world's largest copper mine, which caused huge environmental devestation, and that the mine was basically one side of their war, and the war eventually the mine was forced to close.

I know about them because they had an independence referendum a couple years ago (it passed, who knows whether they'll actually become independent though) which put them in the news.

The PNG government is endlessly slow-walking the final step in accepting ABG independence. (The referendum passed with like 98.7%).
I sent this mostly because I found the style of the recollection quoted from the first link incredibly arresting. Like an early iteration of an oral tradition that becomes an epic poem.

After Trump was elected the first time, I started listening to the NZ rural news and RNZ's Pacifica coverage. It had a nice distance when I heard about the horrible floods in NZ, the cattle disease that forced the slaughter of 1000s of cows, the cow-filled boat that sank in a storm, the trade war with China, the elections in PNG and Vunuatu, the referendum in Bougainville, and the independence efforts in New Caledonia. So I kind of already knew about the civil war, though only that there was one.