More than 2,000 people are feared buried in a Papua New Guinea landslide that devastated a remote highland village, the government said yesterday, as it urgently appealed for international assistance in the rescue operation.
The once-thriving hillside community in Enga province was nearly obliterated when a massive portion of Mount Mungalo gave way in the early hours of Friday morning, engulfing numerous homes and the sleeping residents within them.
“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens, and significantly impacted the economic lifeline of the country,” Papua New Guinea’s national disaster centre stated in a letter to the United Nations obtained by AFP.
The main highway leading to the large Porgera gold mine was “completely blocked,” the disaster centre informed the UN resident coordinator’s office in the capital, Port Moresby.
The landslip continued to “shift slowly, posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and survivors alike,” the disaster centre reported.
The magnitude of the disaster necessitated “immediate and collaborative actions from all players,” the centre emphasized, including the army and national and provincial responders. The centre also urged the United Nations to alert Papua New Guinea’s development partners “and other international friends” to the crisis.
