UN says 670 feared dead in Papua New Guinea landslide
A United Nations worker in Papua New Guinea has put the death toll from a landslide that buried a village in the South Pacific nation overnight at 670.
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Mundo Papua-Nova Guiné
"An estimated 150-plus homes are buried and 670 people are feared dead," Serhan Aktoprak, the U.N. migration agency's chief of mission in Papua New Guinea's capital, Port Moresby, told AFP.
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Aktoprak said the revised death toll was based on estimates from the village of Yambali and Enga provincial authorities that more than 150 homes were buried in Friday's landslide. The previous estimate was 60 homes.
"They are estimating that over 670 people are under the soil at the moment," Aktoprak told The Associated Press, indicating the death toll could rise.
Local officials had initially estimated the number of dead to be about 100 when the disaster struck Friday. So far, only five bodies and a leg of a sixth victim have been recovered.
Emergency crews in Papua New Guinea were on Sunday moving survivors to safer ground as unstable earth and tribal fighting common in the country's highlands threatened to hamper rescue efforts.
The South Pacific island nation's government, meanwhile, was considering whether to formally request more international assistance.
Crews have given up hope of finding anyone alive in the mud and debris that is 6 to 8 meters (20 to 26 feet) deep in places, Aktoprak said.
"People are coming to terms with what has happened, so there is a lot of mourning and grieving," he said.
Government authorities were setting up care centers on safer ground on either side of a massive debris field that covers an area the size of three to four football fields and has cut the main highway through the province.
"The debris is very dangerous to work on, and the ground is still moving," Aktoprak said.
In addition to the blocked highway, trucks carrying food, water and other essential supplies to the devastated village, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the provincial capital of Wabag, have faced threats from tribal fighting in the village of Tambul Tambul, about halfway along the route.
Papua New Guinea soldiers were escorting the convoys.
Eight villagers were killed in a clash between two rival clans Saturday over a long-running land dispute unrelated to the landslide.
About 30 homes and five trade stores were burned during the fighting, according to local officials.
Aktoprak said he did not expect the tribal fighters to attack the convoys but noted that opportunistic criminals could take advantage of the chaos to do so.
"Basically, it could be carjacking or robbery. It's not only the safety and security of the personnel but also the cargo because they could use this chaos as a way to loot," Aktoprak said.
The long-running tribal conflict has cast doubt on the official estimate that nearly 4,000 people lived in the village when a side of Mount Kadovar collapsed.
Justine McMahon, country director for the aid agency CARE International, said moving survivors to "more stable ground" was an immediate priority, along with providing food, water and shelter.
The military was leading those efforts.
The number of injured and missing was still being assessed Sunday.
Seven people, including a child, had been treated at a hospital as of Saturday, but authorities had no details on their conditions.
The hospital was buried along with homes, several small businesses, a guesthouse, a school and a fuel depot, officials said.
McMahon said there were other health facilities in the area, that the provincial government was sending in health workers, and that the World Health Organization was mobilizing staff.
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