Papua New Guinea Landslides: More than 670 people have died after a massive landslide in Yambali village in Enga province of Papua New Guinea. UN Migration Agency official Serhan Aktoprak told news agency AFP on Sunday that it is estimated that more than 150 houses are now buried. So far more than 670 people are presumed dead. Aktoprak, who lives in Port Moresby, told AFP that the situation at the spot is terrible because the ground is still sliding. Water is flowing and posing a great danger to all those present there.
Local officials initially put the death toll at 100 or more on Friday. By Sunday, only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered. Aktoprak further told AFP that more than 1,000 people have been displaced from the once bustling village. The landslide has almost completely destroyed gardens and water supplies. People are using sticks, shovels, large agricultural forks to remove bodies buried under the soil.
At the same time, according to news agency AP, Aktoprak said that he also said that rescuers have given up hope of finding any survivors under the rubble, which is 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) high. He said that people are agreeing to this, so there is a serious level of grief and mourning. According to the AP report, emergency workers began moving survivors to safer places on Sunday. Because unstable soil and tribal war in the upper areas of the country have endangered the rescue effort.
Justin McMahon, country director of humanitarian agency Care International, told AP that providing food, water and shelter to survivors as well as moving them to more stable ground was an immediate priority. Meanwhile, the South Pacific island’s government is considering whether it needs to officially request more international support. It is worth noting that hundreds of people were buried due to a landslide on Friday in Enga province, about 600 kilometers northwest of the country’s capital Port Moresby.
Tags: Natural calamity, Natural Disaster, Papua New Guinea
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 26, 2024, 15:46 IST