MELBOURNE, Australia – The International Organization for Migration on Sunday increased its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670 as emergency responders and traumatised relatives gave up hope that any survivors will now be found.
Serhan Aktoprak, Chief of the UN migration agency’s mission in the South Pacific island nation, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes had been buried by Friday’s landslide. The previous estimate had been 60 homes.
They are estimating that more than 670 people (are) under the soil at the moment, Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
Local officials had initially put the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. Only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered by Sunday.
Around 250 additional houses have been condemned since the landslide because of still-shifting ground, leaving an estimated 1,250 people homeless, officials said.
Crews have given up hope of finding survivors under earth and rubble 6 to 8 metres deep.
People are coming to terms with this so there is a serious level of grieving and mourning, Aktoprak said.
He said the new estimated death toll was not solid because it was based on the average size of the region’s families per household. He would not speculate on the possibility that the actual toll could be higher.
Relief crews were moving survivors to safer ground on Sunday as tons of unstable earth and tribal warfare, which is rife in the Papua New Guinea Highlands, threatened the rescue effort.
Convoys that have transported food, water, and other essential supplies since Saturday to the devastated village 60 kilometres from the provincial capital, Wabag, have faced risks related to tribal fighting in Tambitanis village, about halfway along the route. Papua New Guinea soldiers were providing security for the convoys.
Eight locals were killed in a clash between two rival clans on Saturday in a longstanding dispute unrelated to the landslide. Around 30 homes and five retail businesses were burned down in the fighting, local officials said.
Aktoprak said he did not expect tribal combatants would target the convoys but noted that opportunistic criminals might take advantage of the mayhem to do so.
This could basically end up in carjacking or robbery, Aktoprak said. There is not only concern for the safety and security of the personnel, but also the goods because they may use this chaos as a means to steal.
Australia, a near neighbour and Papua New Guinea’s most generous provider of foreign aid, along with the United States are among governments that have publicly stated their readiness to do more to help responders.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.
