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.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS