Papua New Guinea | More than 2,000 people buried after landslide, authorities say

(Port Moresby) A large landslide has buried more than 2,000 people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, authorities in the Pacific country announced on Monday, calling on the international community to provide aid.

“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused significant destruction,” the archipelago’s disaster management center told the UN office in the capital Port Moresby, according to a copy of a letter obtained by AFP.

A mountainside village in Enga province in central Papua New Guinea was almost completely wiped out when a section of Mount Mungalo collapsed at around 3 a.m. Friday (1 p.m. local time). ‘East Thursday), engulfing dozens of houses and surprising their inhabitants in their sleep.

The estimated number of deaths had already been raised to 670 this weekend.

The disaster caused “significant destruction of buildings and food gardens and had a major impact on the country’s economy,” underlines the disaster management center.

“The situation remains unstable, as the landslide continues to move slowly, posing a permanent danger for rescue teams and survivors,” he warned in his letter.

This body called for help from the international community and the UN invited its member countries to an online meeting on Tuesday morning for emergency assistance, according to the French embassy in Port Moresby.

President Xi Jinping has offered China’s help, like his American counterparts Joe Biden and French Emmanuel Macron.

The World Health Organization (WHO) did the same on Monday. “We are ready to help the government respond to urgent health needs,” said its boss, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

In a message sent by the Vatican’s number two, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, and released on Monday, Pope Francis “assures of his spiritual closeness” to all the victims, “praying in particular for the dead, for those who mourn them and for the rescue of the many people still missing.”

Risk for rescuers

Serhan Aktoprak, the head of the UN migration agency based in Port Moresby, said rescuers were in a “race against time” to find survivors.

Rescuers work in dangerous conditions, particularly due to “rocks [qui] continue to fall and move the ground” and groundwater flow, he said.

“This could trigger a new landslide,” warned the official, and constitutes a “serious risk” for rescuers and the population.

Residents of nearby villages are helping to dig up the bodies using spades and other agricultural tools in the mudslide that has swept away rocks and trees, reaching a depth estimated at eight meters.

Located on the side of Mungalo, a mountain covered with dense forest, the village sheltered a transient population which could reach more than 4,000 people. It served as a trading post for miners searching for gold in the highlands.

However, it is difficult to know the precise number of victims, because many people fleeing tribal violence have settled in the region in recent years, noted Nicholas Booth, an official with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). .

By Saturday evening, at least five bodies had been removed from the rubble.

Tribal violence

Tribal violence that has broken out along the only access route is further complicating relief operations, Aktoprak said.

“Many houses are burning […]. Women and children have been displaced, and all the youth and men in the area are armed with bush knives,” he said, citing a report of an aid convoy trying to reach the site. of the disaster.

However, this violence is not “linked to the landslide”, he clarified.

“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,” lamented the teacher from a neighboring village, Jacob Sowai, to AFP.

Heavy rain

The company running the nearby Porgera gold mine, more than 2,000 meters above sea level, is expected to provide mechanical excavators to help rescuers and clear roads.

Local residents said the landslide was triggered by the heavy rains that fell in 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.

In March, at least 23 people died in a landslide in a neighboring province.