Melbourne, Australia — The International Organization for Migration on Sunday raised its estimate of the death toll from a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea to more than 670.
Serhan Aktoprak, head of the U.N. migration agency’s mission in the South Pacific island nation, said the revised death toll was based on estimates by Yambali village and Enga provincial officials that more than 150 homes They had been buried by Friday’s landslide. The previous estimate had been 60 homes.
“They’re estimating that more than 670 people are underground right now,” Aktoprak told The Associated Press.
Local authorities had initially estimated the death toll on Friday at 100 or more. As of Sunday, only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim had been recovered.
Emergency services in Papua New Guinea were moving survivors to safer ground on Sunday as tons of unstable land and tribal warfare, rife in the country’s Highlands, threatened rescue efforts.
Meanwhile, the South Pacific island’s government is considering whether it needs to officially request more international support.
Crews have given up hope of finding survivors underground and debris 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) deep, Aktoprak said.
“People are coming to terms with this, so there is a serious level of grief and mourning,” he said.
Government authorities were setting up evacuation centers on safer grounds on either side of the huge swath of debris that covers an area the size of three or four football fields and has cut off the main highway through the province.
“Working on the rubble is very dangerous and the ground keeps sliding,” Aktoprak said.
In addition to the blocked road, convoys that have transported food, water and other essential supplies since Saturday to the devastated village 60 kilometers (35 miles) from the provincial capital, Wabag, have faced risks related to tribal fighting. in the village of Tambitanis, about halfway along the road. route. Papua New Guinea soldiers were responsible for the security of the convoys.
Eight locals were killed on Saturday in a clash between two rival clans in a long-running dispute unrelated to the landslide. About 30 homes and five retail businesses were burned in the fighting, local officials said.
Aktoprak said he did not expect tribal fighters to attack the convoys, but noted that opportunistic criminals could take advantage of the chaos to do so.
“Basically, this could end in vehicle theft or robbery,” Aktoprak said. “We are not only concerned about the safety of staff, but also that of property, because they can use this chaos as a means to steal.”
The prolonged tribal war has cast doubt on the official estimate that nearly 4,000 people were living in the village when a slope of Mount Mungalo fell.
Justine McMahon, national director of humanitarian agency CARE International, said moving survivors to “more stable ground” was an immediate priority, along with providing them with food, water and shelter. The military was leading those efforts.
The number of injured and missing was still being assessed on Sunday. Seven people, including a child, had received medical treatment as of Saturday, but authorities had no details on their condition.
The medical facility was buried along with homes, several small businesses, a guest house, a school and a gas station, authorities said.
McMahon said there were other health facilities in the region, the provincial government was sending health workers and the World Health Organization was mobilizing staff.
“There will be some support, but it’s such a widespread area that I think it’s going to be a pretty challenging situation,” McMahon said. “The scale of this disaster is quite immense.”
Although Papua New Guinea is located in the tropics, the village is 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) above sea level, where temperatures are substantially colder.
Papua New Guinea Defense Minister Billy Joseph and the director of the government’s National Disaster Center Laso Mana flew from Port Moresby by helicopter to Wabag on Sunday to get a first-hand perspective of what is needed.
Aktoprak expected the government to decide on Tuesday whether it would officially request more international aid.
The United States and Australia, a close neighbor and Papua New Guinea’s most generous foreign aid provider, are among governments that have publicly declared their willingness to do more to help first responders.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation with 800 languages and 10 million people who are mostly subsistence farmers.
This story originally appeared on ABCNews.go.com read the full story
