SYDNEY: More than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive in a landslide in Papua New Guinea last week.
In a letter to the United Nations on Monday, the National Disaster Center raised the death toll to 2,000 as of Sunday. A separate UN agency put the death toll at more than 670.
The difference reflects the remoteness of the sites and the difficulty of obtaining accurate population estimates. The last census in PNG was in 2000, and most people live in isolated highland villages.
The landslide hit the village of Ambambali in the north of the country at around 3am on Friday when most of the people were sleeping. More than 150 houses were buried under the debris two stories high. Rescuers told local media they heard screams underground.
“18 members of my family are buried under the dust and the ground above me, I know there are more family members in the village,” resident Ewit Kambu told Reuters. “But I can’t take the corpse, so I stand here helpless”.
For more than 72 hours after the landslide, residents have been using knives, sticks and bare hands to try and move the debris and reach survivors.
Heavy equipment and aid arrived slowly due to the remote location, and nearby tribal wars forced aid workers to travel in caravans sent with soldiers and return at night to the provincial capital, about 60 km away.
Eight people were killed and 30 houses burned on Saturday, UN agency officials said. An aid convoy passed through the rubble of houses on Monday.
UN officials said the first diggers arrived at the site late on Sunday. Six bodies have been recovered so far.
Communication with other parts of the country is difficult due to power supply here.
According to pastor Matthew Hewitt Tapus, who lives in Port Moresby, many people do not know where their loved ones are when the landslides occur. 12 miles from the disaster zone).
“It’s not like everyone is in the same house, so you have fathers who don’t know where their children are, mothers who don’t know where their husbands are,” she told Reuters by phone.
Prime Minister James Marape’s office said the disaster was being dealt with by PNG’s emergency services and Marape was due to return to parliament on Tuesday in the capital Port Moresby.
Responding to the aid question, China said it would focus on PNG’s needs and support China’s capacity for disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction in Pacific countries.
“We believe that the people of Papua New Guinea can overcome difficulties and rebuild their homeland,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said at a daily press conference.
According to Serhan Aktoprak, head of the mission of the United Nations Migration Agency in PNG, although the rescue team was able to reach the location, rain, unstable terrain and flowing water made it too dangerous for the residents and the rescue team to clear the debris.
More than 250 houses were said to have been left as more than 250 houses were displaced and landslides and debris flowed again as officials urged people to evacuate. More than 1,250 people were displaced.
Some local residents said they did not want heavy machinery and excavators to enter the villages and reduce grief.
“At this point, I think people realize that the odds are very slim that anyone can get out alive,” he said.
