Papua New Guinea government officials told the United Nations that more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive in Friday’s landslides and have formally requested international aid.
The government figure is almost three times higher than the United Nations estimate that 670 people were killed in a landslide in the mountainous interior of the South Pacific island nation. Only six bodies have been recovered so far.
In a letter dated Sunday to the U.N. resident coordinator and seen by The Associated Press, Luseta Raso Mana, acting director of the South Pacific island nation’s Malaria National Disaster Center, said the landslide “buried more than 2,000 people alive” and caused “major damage” in the village of Yambari in Enga province.
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Casualty estimates have fluctuated widely since the disaster and it was not immediately clear how authorities arrived at the number of people affected.
People cross the Yambari village after a massive landslide that may have destroyed 150 homes, May 24, 2024, in Papua New Guinea. (Benjamin Sipa/International Organization for Migration)
The International Organization for Migration, which works closely with governments and plays a leading role in the international response, is leaving its death toll estimate of 670, which it released on Sunday, pending new evidence.
“We can’t challenge the government’s proposal, but we can’t comment on it either,” said Serhan Aktoprak, head of the U.N. migration agency’s mission to Papua New Guinea.
“That number will be fluid over time with such a large operation,” Aktoprak added.
The death toll of 670 was based on calculations by Yambari village and Enga provincial authorities, who said more than 150 homes were buried in landslides, up from an earlier estimate of 60.
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Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape’s office did not respond to a request Monday to explain what the government’s estimate of 2,000 deaths was based on. Marape has promised to release information on the scale of damage and loss of life as soon as it is available.
The scale of the disaster is difficult to gauge due to difficult conditions on the ground — the villages’ remote location, lack of communications and ongoing tribal violence across the state — and international aid workers and supplies require military escorts.
Fighting between two rival tribes in Enga in February left at least 26 tribal warriors and mercenaries dead, along with an unconfirmed number of bystanders.
The national government lacks reliable census data, making it even harder to gauge what the death toll may be.
The Papua New Guinea government estimates the country’s population at about 10 million, but a United Nations study based on rooftop satellite images and other data estimates it could reach 17 million by 2022. The country has not conducted an accurate census for decades.
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The landslide has buried a 650-foot section of the state’s main highway under 20 to 26 feet of debris, posing a major obstacle to rescue efforts.
Mana said the landslide would have major economic impacts across the country.
“The situation remains unstable due to ground movements and continues to pose a risk to both rescue teams and survivors,” Mana said in a letter to the United Nations.
The excavator, donated by a local construction company on Sunday, was the first of the heavy machinery brought in to help villagers who continue to dig with shovels and farm tools in a dangerous attempt to find bodies, working around the still-shifting rubble.
Mana and Papua New Guinea’s Defence Minister Billy Joseph flew in an Australian military helicopter from the capital Port Moresby to Yambali, 370 miles northwest, on Sunday to see first-hand what is needed.
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Mana’s office posted a photo of him handing over a cheque for $130,000 to local officials in Yambari to purchase emergency supplies for 4,000 displaced survivors.
The purpose of the visit was to determine whether the PNG government needed to formally request further international assistance.
Earth-moving equipment used by the Papua New Guinea military was being transported to the disaster site 250 miles from the east coast city of Lae.
Officials said traumatised villagers were divided over whether to use heavy machinery to dig up the bodies of their buried relatives, potentially damaging them further.
