UN migration agency estimates that landslide in Papua New Guinea killed more than 670 people

The International Organization for Migration on Sunday raised its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to over 670, as rescue workers and traumatized relatives gave up hope that any survivors would be found.

Serhan Aktoprak, head of the UN migration mission in the South Pacific island nation, said the revised death toll was based on calculations by officials in Yambali village and Enga province, who said more than 150 houses were buried by Friday’s landslide, compared to a previous estimate of 60 houses.

“They estimate that there are more than 670 people underground right now,” Aktoprak told the Associated Press.

Local authorities initially estimated the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. By Sunday, only five bodies and the leg of a sixth victim had been recovered.

Rescue teams were busy Sunday moving survivors to safer ground as tons of unstable earth and tribal warfare raging in Papua New Guinea’s highlands threatened rescue efforts.

The national government is currently examining whether it is necessary to officially request more international support.

Rescue teams have given up hope of finding survivors six to eight meters below the ground and rubble.

“People have to come to terms with this; there is a deep level of grief and suffering,” said Aktoprak.

He said the new death toll estimate was “not reliable” because it was based on the average size of families per household in the region, and declined to speculate that the actual number could be higher.

“It’s difficult to say. We want to be realistic,” said Aktoprak. “We don’t want to give numbers that inflate reality.”

Government authorities were setting up evacuation centers on safer ground on both sides of the massive rubble that covered an area the size of three to four football fields and cut off the main road through the province.

In addition to the closed highway, convoys that had been transporting food, water and other essential goods to the devastated village 60 kilometers from the provincial capital Wabag since Saturday were at risk of tribal fighting in the village of Tambitanis, about halfway there. Soldiers from Papua New Guinea ensured the security of the convoys.

Eight locals were killed in a clash between two rival clans on Saturday. The conflict had taken place a long time ago and had nothing to do with the landslide. Around 30 houses and five shops were burned down in the fighting, local authorities said.

Aktoprak said he did not expect tribal fighters to attack the convoys, but cautioned that opportunistic criminals could exploit the chaos for their own benefit.

“This could basically result in car theft or robbery,” said Aktoprak. “There is concern not only for the safety of the staff, but also for the goods, because they could use this chaos as a means to steal.”

Longstanding tribal wars cast doubt on the official estimate that nearly 4,000 people lived in the village when a slope of Mount Mungalo collapsed. The count is years old and does not take into account people who have only recently moved to the village to escape clan violence that government authorities are powerless to stop.

Justine McMahon, country director for the aid group CARE International, said the immediate priority was to get survivors to “more stable ground” and provide them with food, water and shelter, with the military leading the effort.

The number of injured and missing people was still being determined on Sunday. As of Saturday, seven people, including a child, were receiving medical treatment, but the authorities had no further information on their condition.

Papua New Guinea’s Defence Minister Billy Joseph and Laso Mana, director of the government’s National Disaster Management Centre, flew by helicopter from Port Moresby to Wabag on Sunday to get a first-hand impression of the needs of the population.

Aktoprak expected the government to decide by Tuesday whether to officially request further international assistance.

The United States and Australia – a neighboring country and Papua New Guinea’s most generous aid donor – are among the governments that have publicly expressed their willingness to do more to help aid workers.

Papua New Guinea is a diverse developing country with 800 languages ​​and 10 million people, most of whom are subsistence farmers.