ABOUT 2,000 people are feared to have been buried alive after a landslide that occurred in Papua New Guinea on Friday, May 24.
According to a letter sent to the United Nations on Monday, May 27, by the Papua New Guinea authorities, the landslide buried a village and work camp in the remote northern highlands of the nation.
“The landslide buried more than 2,000 people alive and caused major destruction to buildings, food gardens and caused major impact on the economic lifeline of the country,” said an official in the National Disaster Center, Lusete Laso Mana, in the letter.
According to the letter, the area’s main roadway is closed while the terrain is still unstable due to water flowing beneath the rocks, which shifts the land and puts rescue crews and survivors in danger.
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The area, in the Enga Province, is highly inhabited and close to the Porgera gold mine, run by Barrick Gold, a Canadian company in partnership with the Chinese company Zijin Mining.
The jungle region is located in a nation of around 12 million people, directly to the north of Australia. Tropical and split along linguistic, ethnic, and tribal lines, Papua New Guinea is endowed with abundant natural resources but remains relatively undeveloped.
In addition to the number of dead and missing over the weekend, the country estimated that about 1,250 people had been displaced as a result of the abandonment of more than 250 houses by their occupants out of fear of further slide.
Multimedia journalist covering Entertainment and Foreign news