(Port Moresby) Rescuers are in a “race against time” to find survivors after a landslide buried a Papua New Guinea village and killed around 670 people, a rescue official said Monday. ‘UN.
“It has already been three days and seven hours since the disaster occurred. So we are in a race against time, but the question is to what extent we can keep people safe,” said Serhan Aktoprak, a UN migration official based in Port Moresby, the capital of this country in the South Pacific.
The hillside village in Enga province, in the center of the archipelago, was almost completely wiped out when a section of Mount Mungalo collapsed overnight from Thursday to Friday around 3 a.m. (1 p.m. from the East, Thursday), burying dozens of houses and surprising residents in their sleep.
Rescuers work in dangerous conditions, particularly due to “rocks [qui] continue to fall and move the ground,” said Mr. Aktorprak.
“To make matters worse, groundwater is flowing under the debris, transforming the ground surface into a slide,” he added, adding that around 250 houses located nearby were evacuated as a precaution.
PHOTO MOHAMUD OMER, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MIGRATION VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Villagers carry out excavations after the landslide which hit the village of Yambali on May 26.
Initially, humanitarian organizations and local authorities said they feared that between 100 and 300 people had died in the disaster.
But the death toll rose to around 670 when rescuers realized that the village hit by the landslide had more inhabitants than estimated, Mr. Aktoprak explained.
At least four bodies were removed from the debris, authorities said.
“No one was able to escape”
Heavy equipment and excavators were expected to arrive in the disaster area overnight from Sunday to Monday, but their arrival was delayed by tribal violence that broke out along the only access route, Aktoprak said.
However, this violence is not “linked to the landslide”, he clarified.
A schoolteacher from a nearby village, Jacob Sowai, said more than 2,000 people lived in the disaster area.
“People are very sad. No one was able to escape. It is very difficult to collect information. We don’t know who died because the registers are buried,” he lamented to AFP.
Residents from nearby villages are helping to dig up the bodies, said Nickson Pakea, president of the nearby Porgera Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Many people use spades and agricultural tools.
PHOTO MOHAMUD OMER, INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF MIGRATION VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Villagers use heavy machinery to carry out excavations in Yambali on May 26.
“Due to the hardness of the rock […], it’s quite complicated. Excavators are needed to remove the debris,” he added.
A neighboring mining joint venture, New Porgera Limited, agreed to provide mechanical excavators to assist rescuers and clear roads.
More than 1,000 people were displaced following this disaster, according to estimates by humanitarian organizations.
Heavy rain
For nearby residents, this slide must have been triggered by the heavy rains that fell on the region in recent weeks.
According to the World Bank, Papua New Guinea has one of the wettest climates in the world, and heavy rainfall regularly hits its humid highland regions.
According to scientists, variation in rainfall patterns due to climate change is increasing the risk of landslides in the country.
In March, at least 23 people died in a landslide in a neighboring province.
French President Emmanuel Macron indicated on Sunday on X that his country is “ready to contribute to aid and reconstruction efforts”.
In a statement, US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill said they were “heartbroken by the loss of life and destruction”.