Tag: Papua New Guinea

Authorities fear a second landslide and a disease outbreak are looming at the scene of Papua New Guinea’s mass-casualty disaster because of water streams and bodies trapped beneath the tons of debris that swept over a village, a United Nations official said Tuesday.

A mass of boulders, earth and splintered trees devastated Yambali in the South Pacific nation’s remote highlands when a limestone mountainside sheared away Friday.

The blanket of debris has become more unstable with recent rain and streams trapped between the ground and rubble, said Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the International Organization for Migration’s mission in Papua New Guinea.

The U.N. agency has officials at the scene in Enga province helping shelter 1,600 displaced people.

The agency estimates 670 villagers died, while Papua New Guinea’s government has told the United Nations it thinks more than 2,000 people were buried.

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Five bodies had been retrieved from the rubble by Monday.

Scenes of villagers digging with their bare hands through muddy debris in search of their relatives’ remains were also concerning.

The Papua New Guinea government on Sunday officially asked the United Nations for additional help and to coordinate contributions from other nations.

An Australian disaster response team was scheduled to arrive Tuesday in Papua New Guinea, which is Australia’s nearest neighbor.

It will include a geohazard assessment team and drones to help map the site.

Earth-moving equipment used by Papua New Guinea’s military was expected to arrive soon, after traveling from the city of Lae, 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the east, said Justine McMahon, country director of for humanitarian agency CARE International.

The landslide buried a 200-meter (650-foot) stretch of the province’s main highway.

An excavator donated by a local builder Sunday became the first piece of heavy earth-moving machinery brought in to help.

Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.

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Papua New Guinea’s massive landslide three days ago buried more than 2,000 people, the government said on Monday, as treacherous terrain and difficulties transporting aid lowered hopes of finding survivors.

The National Disaster Centre gave the new number in a letter to the U.N. released on Monday but dated Sunday. A separate U.N. agency put the possible death toll at more than 670 people.

The variance reflects the remote site and the difficulty getting an accurate population estimate. PNG’s last credible census was in 2000 and many people live in isolated mountainous villages on the Pacific island nation.

The landslide crashed through six villages in the Maip-Mulitaka district in the country’s north at around 3 a.m. on Friday while most of the community slept. More than 150 houses were buried beneath debris almost two stories high. Rescuers told local media they heard screams from beneath the earth.

“I have 18 of my family members being buried under the debris and soil that I am standing on, and a lot more family members in the village I cannot count,” resident Evit Kambu told Reuters. “But I cannot retrieve the bodies so I am standing here helplessly.”

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More than 72 hours after the landslide, residents are still using spades, sticks and their bare hands to try and shift the debris and reach any survivors. Only seven bodies have been found so far.

Villagers held a funeral on Monday for one of the bodies. Tens of mourners walked in a procession behind the coffin wailing and weeping, according to video shot by a U.N. official.

AID TRICKLE

Heavy equipment and aid have been slow to arrive due to the remote location while tribal warfare nearby has forced aid workers to travel in convoys escorted by soldiers and return to the provincial capital, roughly 60 km (37 miles) away, at night.

Eight people were killed and 30 houses burnt down on Saturday, a U.N. agency official said. Aid convoys on Monday passed the still smoking remains of houses.

The first excavator only reached the site late on Sunday, according to a U.N. official.

Many people are still unsure whether loved ones were in the path of the landslide because villagers often move between the homes of friends and relatives, according to Matthew Hewitt Tapus, a pastor based in Port Moresby whose home village is roughly 20km (12 miles) from the disaster zone.

“It’s not like everyone is in the same house at the same time, so you have fathers who don’t know where their children are, mothers who don’t know where husbands are, it’s chaotic,” he told Reuters by phone.

Prime Minister James Marape’s office said the disaster was being handled by PNG emergency authorities and Marape was in the capital Port Moresby preparing for the return of parliament on Tuesday, where he faces a no-confidence motion.

Australia announced an initial A$2.5 million ($1.66 million) aid package late on Monday and said it would send technical experts to help rescue and recovery. The Australian Defence Force is already providing logistical support.

China, which has been wooing Pacific island nations, said it would heed the needs of PNG and provide assistance within China’s capabilities for disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction.

“We believe that the people of Papua New Guinea will be able to overcome difficulties and rebuild their homeland at an early date,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily news briefing when asked about aid to PNG.

(Reuters)