Australia will send technical experts and $2.5 million in initial aid to Papua New Guinea as the death toll rises following a catastrophic landslide that destroyed a village in remote Enga province on Friday.
PNG’s National Disaster Centre on Sunday told the United Nations that more than 2000 people were missing after being buried alive, although estimates vary due to a lack of accurate population data, in addition to so many people living in isolated mountainous villages.
Villagers search through a landslide in Pogera village, in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.Credit: AP
Under the Australian aid package, experts will provide incident management assistance, support geo-hazard assessments and help early recovery efforts, with the Australian Defence Force also assisting.
“As a close neighbour and friend, we will be doing all we can to provide support,” Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said in a statement on Monday.
Treacherous terrain in the region meant it was difficult to get aid in, hampering rescue efforts and raising fears that few survivors will be found.
Australia was also ready to consider additional support beyond the initial package, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.
“(This) package will assist the urgent needs of those affected by this devastating landslide,” she said.
The landslide crashed through Yambali village in the country’s north about 3am on Friday while most of the community slept. More than 150 houses were buried beneath debris almost two storeys high. Rescuers told local media they had 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 said. “But I cannot retrieve the bodies so I am standing here helplessly.”
More than 72 hours after the landslide, residents were still using spades, sticks and their bare hands to try to shift the debris and reach any survivors.
Heavy equipment and aid has 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, about 60 kilometres away, at night.
Eight people were killed and 30 houses burnt down on Saturday alone, a UN agency official said. Aid convoys on Monday passed the smoking remains of houses.
The first excavator reached the site late on Sunday, according to a UN official. Only six bodies have been retrieved so far.
Contact with other parts of the country is difficult due to patchy reception and limited electricity.
Many people aren’t even sure where their loved ones were when the landslide hit because it’s common for residents to stay at the homes of friends and relatives, according to Matthew Hewitt Tapus, a pastor based in Port Moresby whose home village is roughly 20 kilometres 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 said by phone.
Prime Minister James Marape’s office said the disaster was being handled by PNG emergency authorities.
Marape was in the capital, Port Moresby, preparing for the return of parliament on Tuesday, where he faces a no-confidence motion.
Rescue work going slowly
Earlier on Monday, Marles said Australian officials had been in discussions with their PNG counterparts about support.
An injured person is carried on a stretcher to seek medical assistance after a landslide in Yambali village.Credit: International Organisation for Migration via AP
“This is an absolute tragedy,” Marles told the ABC’s Radio National on Monday. I know that every Papua New Guinean today will be feeling it, as every Australian today is feeling it on their behalf.
“Our two countries are very, very close together, and in moments of natural disaster, they have been very, very quick to support us, and we are doing the same thing.”
Even when rescue teams can get to the site, rain, unstable ground and flowing water are making the task of clearing debris extremely dangerous, according to Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the UN migration agency’s mission in PNG.
There was still a risk the soil and debris could shift again, and more than 250 homes had been abandoned as officials encouraged people to evacuate, he said. More than 1250 people have been displaced.
Some local residents didn’t want heavy machinery and excavators entering the village and interrupting the mourning, he said.
“At this point, people I think are realising that the chances are very slim, that anyone can basically be taken out alive,” he said.
Reuters, AAP
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