Only "five bodies and one leg" have been found so far beneath the gigantic landslide that engulfed a village in northwest Papua New Guinea on Friday, May 24. But the country's government in the southwestern Pacific announced on Monday that more than 2,000 people may have been buried alive. The International Organization for Migration (IOM), a branch of the UN, had put the probable death toll at 670 the previous day. With the landslide taking place at 3 am, most of the village of Yambali's population in the Enga province had no time to flee.
Local authorities reported on Saturday that only seven people, including a child, had been treated by the emergency services. Around 150 houses and two clinics were buried. Six other villages were affected. Heavy rains in recent weeks were the probable cause of the disaster. The government has appealed for international aid. Australia, one of Papua New Guinea's closest neighbors, announced plans to send humanitarian aid.
On Sunday, rescue workers tried to evacuate 1,250 survivors to safer areas as sections of the hills continued to collapse. Landslides have a tendency to spread. Once an area has been destabilized, neighboring land can also be swept away. "We have warned the local population, who are looking for their loved ones, to be very careful," said Maki Igarashi, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Papua New Guinea, from the capital Port Moresby.
"Papua New Guineans are used to volcanic eruptions, but as far as I know, this is the first time the country has had to deal with a landslide on such a scale and with so many victims. The situation is dramatic," said the humanitarian. The organization has 150 volunteers based in the highlands region, "ready to intervene as soon as possible, in particular to provide basic necessities such as blankets, hygiene kits and water jerry cans," said Igarashi, who spoke to Le Monde on Monday morning.
On site, rescuers now have little hope of finding survivors, buried under 6 to 8 meters of mud. Serhan Aktoprak, head of the IOM mission in the South Pacific island nation, told the Associated Press on Sunday that people were coming to terms with the disaster.
Aerial images showed an entire hillside collapsed, leaving only a wide trail of rock and ochre soil – over 3 hectares – in the middle of a region of lush vegetation. On the edges of the collapsed terrain, debris from sheet-metal buildings and swept trees could be seen. Survivors tried to help, but there was little they could do with simple spades in the face of the sheer scale of the disaster. The landslide swept away at least 200 meters of the main road in the region, already naturally remote. Enga is some 600 kilometers from the capital.
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