The government of Papua New Guinea estimates that 2,000 people were buried alive when a devastating landslide destroyed a village in the early hours of Friday morning, and a United Nations offical is warning that because of weather conditions, the situation could quickly get worse.
"What really worries me personally very much is the weather, weather, weather," Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the U.N International Organization for Migration's mission in Papua New Guinea said. "Because the land is still sliding. Rocks are falling."
Many residents of the impacted Yambali village, located in the Enga Province, were still asleep when a chunk of Mount Mungalo collapsed into a landslide.
"The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country," government official Lusete Laso Mana wrote in a letter to the United Nations. Mana added that the main road is blocked and that rescue missions are still highly dangerous because water continues to shift under piles of earth.
The UN team in Papua New Guinea has warned that the disaster is ongoing - making it challenging to provide aid and nearly impossible to get an accurate victim count.
"Papua New Guinea's Defence Force is leading search and rescue efforts. The site's remoteness, ongoing terrain movement and damage to access roads is slowing relief efforts," the UN wrote in a Monday statement.
"While the exact number of victims is still not known, affected communities estimate that at least 670 people are missing following the landslide, this number is subject to change as rescue efforts are ongoing and expected to continue for days."
I’m sending my solidarity to the people of Papua New Guinea following the devastating landslide that has claimed the lives of hundreds of people.@UN staff are mobilizing and supporting government’s response efforts.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) May 26, 2024
The UN and the Papua New Guinean government are working to distribute emergency aid, including food, water and shelter. There are also short-term evacuation facilities being set up while the disaster is ongoing.
Australia, which is Papua New Guinea's closest neighbor, is also expected to provide aid - though Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles the details of their plan are still up for discussion.
"The exact nature of the support that we do provide will play out over the coming days," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. "We've obviously airlift capacity to get people there. There may be other equipment that we can bring to bear in terms of the search and rescue."
