Landslide in Papua New Guinea claims at least 2,000 lives. These are some of the challenges that rescue workers must face

According to the government of Papua New Guinea, more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive in a landslide in the South Pacific island nation after a mountainside collapsed in the early hours of Friday as the village of Yambali slept.

The settlement is located in a troubled and remote area inland of the poor, rural state off Australia’s north coast, making search and rescue efforts complicated and dangerous.

According to the government, the death toll is about three times higher than the UN estimate of 670 dead. So far, only the remains of six people have been recovered.

In a letter to the UN coordinator on Sunday, seen by The Associated Press, the acting director of Papua New Guinea’s National Disaster Management Centre, Luseta Laso Mana, said the landslide had “buried more than 2,000 people alive” and caused “great destruction” in the village of Yambali in Enga province.

Casualty estimates have varied considerably since the disaster, and it was not immediately clear how officials determined the number of people affected.

Here’s a look at some of the challenges:

DIFFICULT ACCESS, RESTLESS POPULATION The village, which has a population of at least 4,000 but probably many more, is located in a mountainous and forested part of Papua New Guinea’s Enga province. It lies along a winding road to the town of Porgera and a mine that has produced billions of dollars’ worth of gold but whose security guards have been accused of abuse by human rights groups.

The highway was flooded by the landslide, virtually cutting off Porgera and the other villages behind Yambali from the provincial capital Wabag, which is about 60 kilometers from the disaster site.

Rescue workers brought help from Wabag, but had to cover the last 200 meters of the route on foot across the highway covered in rubble.

Rubble measuring six to eight metres high and covering an area the size of three to four football fields had to be cleared away exclusively by hand using shovels and pickaxes for more than two days until an excavator donated by a local construction company arrived on Sunday.

But survivors were reluctant to allow the use of heavy machinery because they did not want their loved ones’ bodies to be harmed, said Serhan Aktoprak, head of the UN migration agency’s mission in Papua New Guinea. The donated excavator was driven away on Monday morning, although it was unclear whether this was due to objections from locals or for some other reason, he said.

Military engineers with additional heavy equipment are being transported to the accident site, 400 kilometers from the east coast city of Lae, and are expected to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.

DEADLY LOCAL FEUDATIONS PROPOSE RESPONSE Despite the disaster, the long-standing tribal wars in Enga province have not continued, so soldiers must ensure the safety of aid convoys on their way to Yambali.

At least 26 men were killed in an ambush in February, and eight more died on Saturday in a clash between two rival clans in a long-standing dispute unrelated to the landslide. About 30 houses and five retail stores were burned in the fighting, officials said.

Because of security risks, the convoys can only travel during daylight hours and since each route takes two hours, their time on the ground is severely limited, Aktoprak said in a telephone interview from Port Moresby, the country’s capital.

About 25 people from the UN, other organizations and the military are making the journey every day. On Monday, they reported seeing burning houses and men armed with machetes on the way, Aktoprak said.

In addition, rescue workers face the threat of an ongoing natural disaster as the earth continues to shift in the disaster zone.

The debris is becoming increasingly saturated with water from three streams that were flooded by the landslide, making it dangerous to work there and raising the risk that the debris will slide even further down the slope. Communities further down have already been evacuated, Aktoprak said.

“Our situation is getting worse by the moment,” he said.

WHAT LIES AHEADThe disaster is not over yet and rescue efforts are still in their early stages. It is difficult to predict exactly what will happen next.

But with all the small farms and vegetable gardens that support the village’s subsistence farming and much of its livestock destroyed, it is clear that Yambali’s survivors will need help for some time to come.

The village is located near a river, but the residents were dependent on the three streams that were buried by the landslide for their drinking water supply.

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.

In addition to those evacuated from settlements below Yambali, an estimated 6,000 people have been affected by the disaster so far, according to Aktoprak. If the survivors move to urban areas, “this will trigger additional economic and social problems.”

Porgera and other towns beyond Yambali on the highway are now cut off and can only be reached by helicopter. It was also not immediately clear what help people in those areas might also need.

The government of Papua New Guinea officially asked for more international assistance on Monday.

Governments that have publicly stated they are willing to do more include the United States and Australia – a neighboring country and Papua New Guinea’s most generous aid donor.

Papua New Guinea forms the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, the western half belongs to Indonesia. It lies in the so-called “Ring of Fire” of the Pacific Ocean, a belt of active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.

The official population is around 10 million, but the UN says that no comprehensive census has been taken for years and the actual number may be closer to 17 million.

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Associated Press writers Rod McGurk in Melbourne, Australia, and Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.