More than 2,000 buried alive in Papua New Guinea landslide, government says

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More than 2,000 buried alive in Papua New Guinea landslide, government says

More than 2,000 people were buried alive by a massive landslide in Papua New Guinea last week, the country’s national disaster centre said on Monday, as treacherous terrain and the difficulty of getting aid to the site raises the risk few survivors will be found.

The numbers of those buried around Yambali village in Enga province in the country’s north are based on estimates from local authorities, which have been rising steadily since Friday’s landslide.

A United Nations agency put the estimated death toll at more than 670 people on Sunday.

The National Disaster Centre raised the toll again to 2,000 in a letter to the UN on Sunday that was released publicly on Monday. The landslide also caused major destruction to buildings and food gardens, it said.

“The situation remains unstable as the landslip continues to shift slowly, posing ongoing danger to both the rescue teams and survivors alike,” according to the letter.

A house with a tin roof is seen crushed and rumpled by a large tree.
A demolished house at the site of a landslide at Yambali Village in the region of Maip Mulitaka, in Papua New Guinea’s Enga Province on Saturday. (AFP/Getty Images)

About 4,000 people were living near the affected area, said Justine McMahon, the country director for CARE International Papua New Guinea, in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday.

But it is difficult to get an accurate estimate of the local population as Papua New Guinea’s last credible census was in 2000 and many people live in remote mountainous villages. The country recently announced a census would be conducted in 2024.

Landslide tough to reach

The unstable terrain, remote location and nearby tribal warfare are hampering relief efforts.

Emergency crews, led by Papua New Guinea’s defence personnel, were on the ground, but the first excavator only reached the site late on Sunday, according to a UN official.

Social media footage posted by villagers and local media teams showed people scaling rocks, digging with shovels, sticks and their bare hands to find survivors. Women could be heard weeping in the background.

Men with shovels stand in a dirt pit in a mountainous landscape.
Local residents gather Friday after a landslide in Maip Mulitaka in Enga province. The first excavator only reached the site late on Sunday, according to a UN official. (Emmanuel Eralia/Reuters)

Six bodies have been retrieved so far. The UN said the number of possible deaths could change as rescue efforts were expected to continue for days.

Couple rescued from rubble

Media in Papua New Guinea on Monday reported that residents had rescued a couple trapped under rubble after hearing their cries for help.

Johnson and Jacklyn Yandam told local NBC News that they were very grateful and described their rescue as a miracle.

“We thank God for saving our lives at that moment. We were certain that we were going to die but the big rocks didn’t crush us,” Jacklyn said. “It’s really hard to explain as we got trapped for nearly eight hours, then got rescued. We believe we were saved for a purpose.”

About 1,250 people have been displaced by the landslide, which occurred in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province early Friday. More than 150 houses were buried and about 250 houses abandoned.

“The houses are buried under around eight metres of dirt. So there is quite a lot of debris to get through,” said CARE’s McMahon.

Dangerous conditions

Water continued to flow under the debris, the UN migration agency said, making it extremely dangerous for residents and the rescue team to clear debris.

Serhan Aktoprak, the chief of the UN migration agency’s mission in Papua New Guinea, told ABC television that emergency crews would continue to look for survivors until the residents asked them to stop.

Tribal violence in the region has raised security concerns for road travel, with the military escorting convoys of rescue teams. Eight people were killed, and five shops and 30 houses burned down on Saturday, the UN agency said.

Papua New Guinea gave arrest powers to its military in February amid an eruption of tribal violence that saw at least 26 men killed in an ambush.

The landslide hit a section of highway near the Porgera gold mine, operated by Barrick Gold through Barrick Niugini Ltd., its joint venture with China’s Zijin Mining. Barrick has said the mine has enough fuel on site to operate for 40 days and other critical supplies for longer.

Published at Mon, 27 May 2024 07:51:38 +0000

Israeli airstrike kills dozens in Rafah area for displaced people, Gaza health officials say

Palestinian health and civil emergency service officials said at least 35 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike Sunday on the southern Gaza city of Rafah that hit tents for displaced people — an incident that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) says is under review.

The IDF said its air force struck a Hamas compound in Rafah and that the strike was carried out with “precise ammunition and on the basis of precise intelligence.” The strike took out the Hamas chief of staff for the West Bank and another senior Hamas official behind deadly attacks on Israelis, the military said in a statement.

“The IDF is aware of reports indicating that as a result of the strike and fire that was ignited several civilians in the area were harmed. The incident is under review,” the statement read.

The spokesperson for the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, Ashraf Al-Qidra, said 35 people were killed and dozens others, most of them women and children, were wounded in the attack.

The strike took place in Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood in western Rafah, where thousands of people were taking shelter after many fled the eastern areas of the city where Israeli forces began a ground offensive over two weeks ago.

A wounded child is treated by medics and adults at a hospital.
A wounded child is treated at a hospital in Rafah on Sunday. (Eyad Baba/AFP/Getty Images)

The International Committee of the Red Cross said its field hospital in Rafah was receiving an influx of casualties, and that other hospitals also were taking in a large number of patients.

Senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri described the attack in Rafah as a “massacre,” holding the United States responsible for aiding Israel with weapons and money.

“The air strikes burned the tents, the tents are melting and the people’s bodies are also melting,” said one of the residents who arrived at the Kuwaiti hospital in Rafah.

Hamas launches rockets at Tel Aviv

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas’s armed wing said it launched a “big missile” attack on Tel Aviv as the Israeli military sounded sirens in the central city. Rocket sirens had not been heard in Tel Aviv for the past four months.

The Israeli military said eight projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Rafah, the southern tip of the Gaza Strip where Israel kept up operations despite a ruling by the top UN court on Friday ordering it to stop attacking the city.

A number of the projectiles were intercepted, it said. Israeli emergency medical services said they had received no reports of casualties.

The attack signalled that the militant group was still able to fire long-range rockets despite more than seven months of a devastating Israeli military offensive from the air and the ground. Rafah is located about 100 kilometres south of Tel Aviv.

A person points their mobile phone to inspect damage to a ceiling of a room.
A resident inspects the damage in a house hit during a rocket attack fired by Hamas in the Israeli city of Herzliya on Sunday. (Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was convening his war cabinet later on Sunday to discuss continued operations in Rafah. Israel argues that the UN court’s ruling allows room for some military action there.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Hamas al-Qassam Brigades said the rockets were launched in response to “Zionist massacres against civilians.”

Israel says it wants to root out Hamas fighters holed up in Rafah and rescue hostages it says are being held in the area, but its assault has worsened the plight of civilians and caused an international outcry.

On Sunday, Israeli strikes killed at least five Palestinians in Rafah, according to local medical services. The Gaza health ministry identified the dead as civilians.

WATCH | UN’s top court orders Israel to ‘immediately halt’ military offensive in Rafah: 

UN’s top court orders Israel to ‘immediately halt’ military offensive in Rafah

3 days ago

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Israeli tanks have probed around the edges of Rafah, near the crossing point from Gaza into Egypt, and have entered some of its eastern districts, residents say, but have not yet entered the city in force since the start of operations in the city earlier this month.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz said the rockets fired from Rafah “prove that the [Israel Defense Forces] must operate in every place Hamas still operates from.”

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant held an operational assessment in Rafah where he was briefed on “troops’ operations above and below the ground, as well as the deepening of operations in additional areas with the aim of dismantling Hamas battalions,” his office said in a statement.

Itamar Ben Gvir, a hardline public security minister who is not part of Israel’s war cabinet, urged the army to hit Rafah harder. “Rafah with full force,” he posted on X.

Nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s health ministry says.

Israel launched the operation after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Published at Sun, 26 May 2024 13:32:05 +0000

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