Over 2,000 feared buried in devastating Papua New Guinea landslide
A landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga province buried over 2,000 people in Yambali village. Initial UN estimates reported 670 trapped under 26 feet of debris. The disaster caused extensive destruction to homes and agriculture. Aid workers face ongoing danger as conditions remain unstable.
Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.
By Carmeli Argana
Authorities in Papua New Guinea say more than 2,000 people may have been buried in Friday's landslide that swept over a remote village, media agencies reported, citing a letter to the United Nations.
The projection from the Pacific nation's disaster center follows an earlier UN estimate that 670 people had been trapped under as deep as 8 meters (26 feet) of dirt and rubble, and were feared dead.
"The landslide buried more than 2000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country," the National Disaster Centre said in a letter to the UN, according to reports by Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
Around 150 houses and their residents in Yambali village — located at the foot of a mountain in remote Enga province — are believed to be submerged and "hopes of finding them alive are shrinking," Serhan Aktoprak, country head of the UN International Organization for Migration, said in a statement this weekend.
The landslide occurred around 3 a.m. Friday in Enga, roughly 600 kilometers (370 miles) northwest of the capital, Port Moresby.
Read also:
© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.