MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Papua New Guinea government officials told the United Nations that more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive by flooding last Friday. Landslide They then formally requested international assistance.
The government figure is roughly triple the United Nations' estimate of 670 deaths from a landslide in the mountainous interior of the South Pacific island nation. Local authorities said only five bodies had been recovered by Monday. It was not immediately clear why the figure of six reported Sunday had been revised downward.
In a letter dated Sunday to the U.N. resident coordinator and seen by The Associated Press, Luseta Raso Mana, acting director of the country's 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.
Casualty estimates have fluctuated widely since the disaster and it was not immediately clear how authorities arrived at the number of people affected.
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.
“With any effort of this magnitude, the numbers will be fluid over time,” 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.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister's Office James Marape The government did not respond Monday to a request to explain what it based its estimate of 2,000 people on. Marape promised to release information on the scale of destruction and loss of life as soon as it was available.
The difficult conditions on the ground — including the remote location of villages, lack of communications and tribal fighting across the state — make it difficult to gauge the scale of the disaster, and international relief workers and assistance are needed. Convoy It requires military protection.
At least 26 tribal warriors and mercenaries were killed. Fight Clashes between two rival tribes in Enga in February, 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.
The landslide has left 200 metres of the state's main highway buried under 6-8 metres of rubble, posing a major obstacle to rescue efforts.
Mana said the landslide would have major economic impacts across the country.
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.
“The situation remains unstable due to ground movements and continues to pose a danger to both rescue teams and survivors,” Mana said in a letter to the United Nations.
Mana and Papua New Guinea's Defense Minister Billy Joseph flew in an Australian military helicopter to Yambari, 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Moresby, on Sunday to see first-hand what is needed.
Mana's office posted a photo of him handing over a cheque for 500,000 kina ($130,000) to local officials in Yambari to purchase emergency supplies for 4,000 displaced people.
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 400 kilometers (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.
___
Associated Press writer Adam Schreck in Bangkok contributed to this report.
