Over 2,000 people are thought to be dead following a catastrophic landslide in Papua New Guinea, but search and rescue workers are having difficulty getting access to the mountainside.
In a letter to the UN resident coordinator on Sunday, Luseta Laso Mana, interim head of the National Disaster Centre for the South Pacific island nation, stated that the landslide at Yambali hamlet in the Enga province “buried more than 2.000 people alive” and caused “major destruction.”
Searchers searching the mud for survivors are finding great difficulty due to the persistent rain, moving water, and unstable ground.
Most of the residents of Yambali village in the north of the country were asleep in their houses when the landslide struck at around three in the morning on Friday.
Following the nearly two-story-tall rubble that buried more than 150 dwellings, residents have reported hearing screams emanating from underneath the surface.
“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,” Evit Kambu told. “But I cannot retrieve the bodies so I am standing here helplessly.”
More than three days after the landslide, Serhan Aktoprak, the head of the UN migration agency mission in Papua New Guinea, stated that there was little chance of finding survivors.
“At this point, people I think are realising that the chances are very slim, that anyone can basically be taken out alive,” he stated.
Since heavy equipment and other aid have been sluggish to arrive in the remote spot, residents are still having to remove the wreckage and reach survivors with their own hands, spades, and sticks.
Due to the village’s spotty mobile phone service and lack of energy, communication with other regions of Papua New Guinea is challenging.
The movement of humanitarian relief workers in the area has also been hindered by local tribal fighting; these workers must be led by military to the region affected by landslides and then returned to the province capital, which is around 60km distant, at night.
Six remains have been recovered so far, according to a UN source, who also stated that the first excavator arrived at the scene late on Sunday.
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According to Matthew Hewitt Tapus, a pastor in Port Moresby whose home village is 20 kilometers distant from the landslide, “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.”
The UN has warned that there is a chance that the rubble and earth could move again, and more than 250 homes have been abandoned as authorities urge residents in the surrounding area to leave.
The landslides have resulted in about 1,250 individuals being displaced thus far. Over 670 persons have been confirmed dead in the tragedy as of the most recent UN estimate.
The remote location and the challenges in obtaining a precise population estimate could be the cause of the disparity in the toll. With many residents residing in remote mountain settlements, the latest reliable census of Papua New Guinea was conducted in 2000.
“We are not able to dispute what the government suggests but we are not able to comment on it,” Mr Aktoprak continued.
