Papua New Guinea landslide buries over 2,000 people

On May 24, in the middle of the night, Koakalam village, Papua New Guinea (PNG), was almost entirely buried beneath the debris of a landslide that could account for an entire mountain, according to CNN.

Earlier, United Nation’s migration agency had chalked down the estimated death toll to be at 670 but in a letter to the UN, the National Disaster Centre has affirmed that the actual number may be nearly three times this estimate, accounting that more than 2,000 people were buried alive. The highlands of Enga is where the Mount Mugalo landslide occurred, in the north of Papua New Guinea. 

The landslide struck at 3 AM on Friday while most of the people who resided in the six villages in the Maip-Mulitaka district slept. More than an estimated 150 houses were buried at once, with dirt that rose up to two stories high. The region itself is too remote, and the only road that can be used to access to it has been blocked by the landslide, making the reach of significant aid quite difficult.

Australia announced an A$2.5 million ($1.66 million) aid package on Monday, promising technical experts to help rescue and recovery. Australian Defense Force has been organising logistical support since the natural disaster struck. 

Australian Defense Minister, Richard Marles, has affirmed that upon a conversation between his officials and their counterparts in Papua New Guinea, they have the capacity to airlift aid. They remain in the middle of a discussion on what kind of help should be prioritised to reach and how much they can bring in to help with the search and rescue. 

In a report by Reuters, heavy equipment and aid has been quite slow to arrive to the location because of ongoing tribal warfare forcing a curfew on aid workers who have to travel in convoys escorted by soldiers and return to the capital at night. According to a U.N. official, aid workers passed still smoking remains of houses that were struck in this conflict after eight people were killed, to get to the site on Saturday.

The letter to the UN also explained how grim and bereft the circumstances seem to be. “The situation remains unstable, as the landslip continues to shift slowly, posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and the survivors alike,” it said. Officials said that the rocks continue to fall and that the ground soil is exposed to constantly increasing pressure. 

Approximately 4,000 people lived near the affected are. The houses that are buried under the landslide are around 26.4 feet deep, making it quite impossible to get to without shifting a lot of the debris around. This, however, is a sensitive decision to make as the terrain is still unstable. 

But help remains dicey. Though there have been reports of soldiers arriving at the scene and attempting to remove boulders to free those trapped, Acting Provincial Police Commander Martin Kelei has remarked that these efforts are precarious. Removing these huge boulders, he claims, can further aggravate the gentle limbo of the fallen rocks. According to the humanitarian workers, the scar of debris left behind by the landslide was as big as ‘four football pitches.’

More than 250 homes have been evacuated due to high risk of the soil and debris shifting again and around 1,250 people have been displaced. Rain, unstable ground and flowing water is a major roadblock in rescue efforts and proving extremely dangerous for both residents and rescue teams. 

Justine McMahon, country co-ordinator of Care Australia, a humanitarian aid agency at the scene, said, “The ground is also quite unstable at the moment and it is at the risk trigger further landslide.” He adds, “We’ve decided to stay out for now to allow the authorities time to properly assess the situation to conduct the rescue and recovery operations.”

According to BBC, the locals felt like they had been isolated and left to ‘fend for themselves.’ Locals and survivors have been digging around the dirt and boulders with shovels, digging sticks, spades, large agricultural forks and in some cases, their bare hands, to find their families buried beneath but this has led to limited success. As of now, six bodies have been recovered. 

“It’s been almost three to four days now, but many bodies are not located yet,” Ignas Nembo told BBC. “It is still covered by the landslide and people are finding it really hard to dig them out— they are calling for the government for support and help.”

Prime Minister James Marape has ordered an immediate dispatch of the country’s defence forces and emergency agencies to the area, expressing his condolences. He has asserted that the Defence Force and the Department of Works and Highways are involved in the search and rescue efforts.

Miok Michael, a local community leader, told CNN, “People are gathering and mourning. People have been digging since day one but can’t locate bodies as they are covered by huge rocks. Only machines will do.”

“I have eighteen of my family members buried under the debris and soil that I am standing on. And a lot more family members in the village I cannot count,” Evit Kambu, a resident of the village, told Reuters. “Thank you to all those who’ve come to help us. But I cannot retrieve the bodies, so I am standing here helplessly.”

Chris Jense, PNG National Director of World Vision has explained that the rescue workers ‘clearly realised the scale of the devastation,’ in dialogue with CNN. He has added that the situation is delicate and riskier steps have to be evaluated thoroughly before being taken. “We cannot create further problems with land,” he said. 

“The authorities have been very effective and very responsive and are working around the clock… but I think given the scale of this disaster and the (numbers of) people affected, there will be resources needed from the wider aid community,” McMahon told CNN. 

Alan Collins, professor at University of Adelaide, said the landslide occurred in a region of considerable rainfall. He explained that this could have weakened the rock formation in the steep hillsides alongside a concern of deforestation that removes the tree roots that can stabilise the ground. 

However, what caused the disaster is still unclear. There have been no reports of an earthquake and spare for the heavy rainfall, there is generally nothing else that can point to have caused this. 

Papua New Guinea is a region constituting of vast, mountainous terrains and is home to around 10 million people. 

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