More than 2,000 people are feared buried in a Papua New Guinea (PNG) landslide that destroyed a remote highland village, the government said yesterday, as it pleaded for international help in the rescue effort.
The once-bustling hillside community in Enga Province was almost wiped out when a chunk of Mount Mungalo collapsed in the early hours of Friday morning, smothering scores of homes and the people sleeping inside them.
“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country,” Papua New Guinea’s National Disaster Centre said in a letter to the UN.
Photo: AFP
The main highway to the large Porgera gold mine was “completely blocked,” it told the UN resident coordinator’s office in the capital, Port Moresby.
The landslip is continuing to “shift slowly, posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and survivors alike,” it said.
The scale of the catastrophe required “immediate and collaborative actions from all players,” including the army, and national and provincial responders, it said.
The center also called on the UN to inform Papua New Guinea’s development partners “and other international friends” of the crisis.
The UN is scheduled to hold an online emergency meeting with foreign governments early today. They will try to coordinate a relief effort that has been complicated by the remoteness of the site, as well as the severed road link and ongoing tribal fighting nearby.
Locals and rescue teams have been using shovels and pieces of wood to find bodies under the landslide — a mix of car-sized boulders, uprooted trees and churned-up earth that is thought to be up to 8m deep.
“Nobody escaped. We don’t know who died because records are buried,” said Jacob Sowai, a schoolteacher from a neighboring village.
UN migration agency official Serhan Aktoprak said that the danger was ongoing: “The landmass is still sliding, rocks are falling from the mountain.”
Streams of water were flowing between the soil and debris, while cracks were appearing in land adjacent to the landslip, he added.
“This might trigger a further sliding,” he said, posing a “serious risk” both to rescuers and people living in the area.
Close ally Australia yesterday said that it would provide emergency relief supplies, such as shelters, hygiene kits, and specific support for women and children.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sent a message of condolences saying he was “deeply sorry” to learn of the disaster and offered assistance.
US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and the WHO have also offered support.
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