Landslide in Papua New Guinea buries village, hundreds feared dead

The Prime Minister blamed “unusual rainfall” and weather changes for the landslide. (File)

Sydney, Australia:

Families in Papua New Guinea’s Yambali village were sleeping peacefully in their beds when a massive landslide buried them alive under a “mountain” of debris, a UN rescue worker on the ground and the country’s prime minister said.

For five days, survivors have been using shovels and their bare hands to dig through mud and rubble that is almost two stories high, covering an area the size of three to four football fields. An estimated 2,000 people are buried.

Rescue workers believe the chances of finding survivors are slim.

“Basically, a mountain has fallen on their heads,” says Mate Bagossy, a United Nations Development Programme aid worker in remote Yambali in the northern province of Enga.

Estimates of the number of fatalities vary widely. The government believes that more than 2,000 people were buried alive, while the UN estimates that around 670 are missing. Community spokespeople estimate that around 200 people are dead. Only six bodies have been recovered.

“Our people in this village went to sleep for the last time, not knowing that they were going to breathe their last as they slept peacefully,” Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape told parliament on Wednesday.

“Nature has caused a devastating landslide and flooded or covered the village,” Marape said.

The Prime Minister blamed “exceptional rainfall” and changes in weather patterns for the landslide and the numerous disasters that have hit the Pacific island nation this year.

Satellite images and photos from the UN team and local villagers give an idea of ​​the extent of Friday’s landslide.

“It’s a whole village and shops and a gas station and a hostel and the church and the school … all of that is gone,” said Bagossy, one of the first of a handful of foreign aid workers to arrive in the village earlier this week.

The area was covered with at least six to eight meters of rubble, he said, adding that the village house was partially visible because the landslide had only covered part of it.

“But everything else is under the rubble,” he said.

Unfortunately, Bagossy admitted that the chance of finding survivors was almost zero.

So far, only one excavator has arrived on site, but it is not being used because the ground is still unstable. Thousands of people have been asked to leave the area as more landslides are occurring in the mountains.

Geologists and geohazard specialists from Australia and New Zealand are on their way to the village to carry out an urgent assessment.

“The entire area needs to be surveyed to assess the risk of further landslides in the area and surroundings. It is very difficult to use heavy machinery when the terrain is not stable. The entire road has sunk,” said Bagossy.

The UN migration agency warned of the danger of infectious diseases from decomposing bodies.

“With each passing minute, the bodies buried under the rubble are decomposing, water is accumulating between the earth and the huge rubble covering an area the size of three to four football fields, and it continues to seep, posing a major health risk,” Serhan Aktoprak, head of the agency’s mission in Papua New Guinea, said in an emailed statement.

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