More than 2,000 people were trapped in their homes when a huge landslide hit a remote village in Papua New Guinea, the Pacific nation’s authorities told the UN in a letter seen by AFP.
“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major damage,” the national emergency response center said in a letter to the UN delegation in the capital Port Moresby.
Rescue crews are in a “race once morest time” to find survivors, a UN official said earlier today.
“It’s been more than three days since the disaster happened. We are in a race once morest time, but the question is whether we will be able to find people” alive, Serhan Aktoprak, a migration official at the UN mission in Port Moresby, the capital of the South Pacific nation, told AFP. .
A hillside village in Enga Province, in the central part of the archipelago, was almost completely wiped off the map when part of Mt Mungalo collapsed overnight Thursday to Friday at around 03:00 (local time; around 20:00 Thursday Greece), burying dozens of houses while the inhabitants were sleeping.
The rescue teams are working in dangerous conditions, mainly “because of the falling rocks”, stressed Mr. Aktoprak.
Residents of regarding 250 houses a short distance from the disaster site were decided to evacuate as a precaution, he added.
Initially, humanitarian organizations and representatives of local authorities said they feared that 100 to 300 lives had been lost. The death toll later rose to around 670 when rescue teams realized that the village hit by the landslide had many more residents than they thought, Mr. Aktoprak explained. And today, the authorities said they fear that somewhere around two thousand people were buried.
As of this stage, authorities have recovered four bodies from the wreckage.
“No one might escape”
Heavy machinery is expected in the affected area today, but its arrival has been delayed due to inter-clan violence, which broke out on the only road through which they can get there, according to Mr Aktoprak.
However, the violent incidents are not “connected to the landslide”, he clarified.
A teacher in a neighboring village, Jacob Sowai, told AFP that more than 2,000 people lived in the affected area.
“The world is devastated. None might escape. It is very difficult to gather information. We don’t know who died because the records were also buried,” he added.
Residents of neighboring countries are helping to retrieve bodies, said Nixon Pacea, president of the chamber of commerce and industry in nearby Porzera.
Several use hoes and farm implements.
“Because of how hard the rocks are (…) it’s quite complicated. Excavators are needed to remove the debris,” he added.
A local mining company, New Porgera Limited, has agreed to make excavators and other machinery available to help rescue crews and clear roads.
In total, more than 1,000 people in the area had to be hastily evacuated from their homes due to the disaster, according to humanitarian estimates.
Heavy rains
Residents of the area believe that the landslide was caused by the heavy rains of the last few weeks.
According to the World Bank, Papua New Guinea has one of the wettest climates in the world, and heavy rainfall often hits its wettest areas, especially in the highlands.
Scientists warn that fluctuations in rainfall due to climate change increase the risk of landslides in the country.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday via X that Paris is “ready to contribute to aid and reconstruction efforts”.
In a press release made public by his services at the White House, US President Joe Biden said that he and his wife Jill were “heartbroken” by the “loss of life and devastation”.
Source: RES-MPE
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