MELBOURNE, Australia — The International Organization for Migration on Sunday revised upwards the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670, as emergency responders and traumatized families give up hope of finding any survivors.
Serhan Aktpulak, the head of the U.N. migration agency in the South Pacific island nation, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by Yambari village and Enga provincial authorities that more than 150 homes were buried in Friday’s landslide, up from an earlier estimate of 60.
“At this point, we estimate there are more than 670 people buried underground,” Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
Local authorities initially put the death toll at more than 100 on Friday.
By Sunday, only five bodies and the leg of a sixth victim had been recovered, with an excavator donated by a local construction company being the first earthmoving equipment deployed in the recovery effort.
Rescue teams were moving survivors to safety on Sunday amid frequent instability and tribal fighting in the Papua New Guinea highlands, threatening rescue efforts.
Officials said about 250 more homes have been destroyed as the ground is still shifting since the landslide, leaving an estimated 1,250 people homeless.
Meanwhile, the government is considering whether it needs to make a formal request for further international aid.
Rescuers have given up hope of finding survivors beneath the 20-26 feet of dirt and rubble.
“People are coming to terms with this and there is a great deal of sadness and grief,” Aktoprak said.
He said the new death estimates were “not certain” because they were based on the average family size per household in the area.
He declined to speculate on whether the actual number of casualties might be higher.
“That’s difficult. We want to be pretty realistic,” Aktoprak said. “We don’t want to give numbers that overstate reality.”
Officials are setting up shelters in safer locations on either side of the massive debris pile that covers an area the size of three to four football fields and has blocked a major highway in the state.
Alongside the blocked highway, convoys that have been transporting food, water and other essentials since Saturday to affected villages 35 miles from the provincial capital, Wabag, are facing danger linked to tribal fighting in the village of Tambitanis, about halfway along the route.
Papua New Guinean soldiers were guarding the convoy.
Clashes between two rival clans on Saturday over a long-standing dispute unrelated to the landslide left eight locals dead.
About 30 homes and five shops were burned down in the fighting, local authorities said.
Aktoprak said he did not expect tribal fighters to target the convoy, but noted criminals could take advantage of the confusion.
“This could essentially lead to carjackings and robberies,” Aktoprak said. “Not only are we concerned about the safety and security of personnel, but also the merchandise that people might take advantage of the chaos and steal.”
Years of tribal fighting have cast doubt on official estimates that the village had around 4,000 people living there when the slope of Mount Mungaro collapsed.
This figure dates back many years and does not take into account people who have recently moved to the village to escape inter-clan violence that the authorities have been unable to contain.
Local authorities acknowledged on Sunday that the village’s population was significantly higher than 4,000 when the limestone mountainside collapsed, but a revised estimate is yet to be given.
Justin McMahon, country director for humanitarian group CARE International, said moving survivors to “more stable ground” is an immediate priority, along with providing food, water and shelter. The military is leading those efforts.
The number of injured and missing was still being assessed as of Sunday. Seven people, including a child, had been treated by Saturday but authorities had no details about their condition.
Papua New Guinea’s Defense Minister Billy Joseph and Laso Mana, director of the government’s National Disaster Centre, travelled by helicopter from Port Moresby to Wabag on Sunday to see first-hand what is needed.
Aktoprak predicted the government would decide by Tuesday whether to formally request further international aid.
The United States and Australia, PNG’s neighbors and some of the country’s most generous foreign aid donors, are among the governments that have publicly said they are ready to provide additional support to relief workers.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing country with 800 languages and a population of 10 million people, mostly subsistence farmers.
