MELBOURNE: A Papua New Guinea government official has told the United Nations that more than 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive in last Friday’s landslide and has formally asked for international help.
The government figure has roughly triple the UN estimate of 670 killed by the landslide in the South Pacific island nation’s mountainous interior. The remains of only five people had been recovered, local authorities reported. It was not immediately clear why the tally of six reported on Sunday had been revised down.
In a letter to the United Nations resident coordinator, the acting director of the country’s National Disaster Center, Luseta Laso Mana, said the landslide “buried more than 2,000 people alive” and caused “major destruction” in Yambali village in Enga province.
Estimates of the casualties have varied widely since the disaster occurred, and it was not immediately clear how officials arrived at the number of people affected. The International Organization for Migration, which is working closely with the government and taking a leading role in the international response, has not changed its estimated death toll of 670 released on Sunday, pending new evidence.
“We are not able to dispute what the government suggests but we are not able to comment on it,” said Serhan Aktoprak, chief of the UN migrant agency’s mission in Papua New Guinea. “As time goes in such a massive undertaking, the number will remain fluid,” Aktoprak added.
