An injured person is carried on a stretcher to seek medical help after a landslide in Yambali village, Papua New Guinea, on Friday, May 24, 2024. More than 100 people are believed to have died in the incident Landslides buried a village and a village. Officials in the South Pacific island nation said an emergency response was underway.
Benjamin Sipa/International Organization for Migration/via AP
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Benjamin Sipa/International Organization for Migration/via AP
A convoy of emergency vehicles was delivering food, water and other supplies Saturday to stunned survivors of the quake. Landslides devastated a remote village in the mountains of Papua New Guinea and is feared to have buried many people, officials said.
Serhan Aktoprak, head of the International Organization for Migration’s delegation to the South Pacific island nation, said an assessment team’s report “suggests” that 100 people died and 60 houses were buried by the slopes. mountain collapsed in Enga province hours before dawn Friday. .
Aktoprak admitted that if the number of buried houses estimated by local authorities is correct, the death toll could be even higher.
“The scale is so large, I would not be surprised if the number of casualties was more than the 100 previously reported,” Aktoprak said. “If 60 houses were destroyed, the number of casualties would certainly be higher than 100.”
Just three bodies were recovered early Saturday from the vast expanse of land, boulders and fallen trees in Yambali, a village of nearly 4,000 people, 600 kilometers northwest of the capital Port Moresby.
Aktoprak said seven people received medical treatment, including one child. He had no information on the extent of their injuries.
“There are concerns that the number of casualties and injuries will increase significantly,” said Aktoprak, who is based in Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said on Friday he would release information on the scale of destruction and casualties as it became available.
All of the food gardens that supported the village’s subsistence farming population were destroyed and three streams that provided drinking water were buried by landslides, which also clogged the province’s main highway.
Aktoprak said a convoy left the provincial capital Wabag carrying food, water and other supplies to a devastated village 35 miles away.
Villager Andrew Ruing said survivors were in desperate need of help.
“People — they can’t cry or they can’t do anything, because it’s so difficult for them,” Ruing said in a video shown by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. “Because such a situation has never happened in history. And so we are calling on the whole country of government, people or businesses, senior levels from anywhere, everywhere – we are looking for their support.”
Aktoprak said that in addition to food and water, villagers have an urgent need for shelter and blankets. He said relief will target the most vulnerable, including children, women, people with disabilities and the elderly.
Relief efforts were delayed because of debris
Relief efforts were delayed by landslides that blocked the province’s main highway, which serves the Porgera Gold Mine and the neighboring town of Porgera.
Landslide debris 20 to 25 feet deep also knocked out power in the area, Aktoprak said.
Unstable soil poses risks to relief efforts as well as causing communities to decline.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing country of mostly subsistence farmers with 800 languages. There are very few roads outside the larger cities.
With 10 million people, it is the most populous South Pacific country after Australia, which has about 27 million people.
The US and Australia said they were ready to respond
The United States and Australia are building closer defense ties with the strategically important country, where China is seeking closer economic and security ties.
US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said their governments were ready to assist in responding to the landslide.
Biden, who was set to become the first sitting US president to visit Papua New Guinea a year ago but canceled the trip to focus on the debt crisis in Congress, said he was heartbroken by the losses about lives and destruction.
“We pray for all the families affected by this tragedy and all the first responders who are putting themselves in harm’s way to help their fellow citizens,” Biden said in a statement. declare.
“The United States stands with Papua New Guinea – our partner and close friend – today and always,” Biden added.
“All Australians grieve for our brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea after the terrible landslide,” Albanese posted on social media platform X.
Australia is Papua New Guinea’s closest neighbor and its most generous foreign aid provider.
