The survivors of a massive landslide in a remote village in Papua New Guinea’s highlands are still waiting for official help, more than 24 hours after the disaster.

Hundreds are feared dead in Yambali village in Enga province after the landslide bulldozed homes and buried families alive early Friday morning.

Mick Michael, who lives 3km from Yambali, was in contact with the affected villagers and said people desperately need help.

“And what I am getting is calls from the local leaders and community landowners that they are still seeking help,” he said.

“The roads to the main highway from here to down to the mine [Porgera] site are still closed, and they are seeking help to get those bodies that are buried. But they haven’t gotten any help yet, they are still waiting for that.”

Residents are relying on outside help and heavy machinery to retrieve the bodies of people who were fast asleep when the landslide covered the community.

The Enga provincial local government has called on local health facilities and non-government organisations to be on standby to assist with recovery and relief efforts at the site of the Maip Mulitaki landslide.

Emergency response team
The Enga Province administration met to assemble an emergency response team to assess the damage in the village.

Michael said the Wabag District Development Authority was heading down to support residents and would provide medicine and food supplies on Saturday.

“They are also supporting with a machine as well to dig out the bodies as around 100 houses were buried in the landslide,” he said.

Four bodies have been recovered so far, while the rest have been buried underneath all the rock and mud.

In a statement last night, Prime Minister James Marape said he was yet to be fully briefed, but that authorities were responding to the disaster.

“We are sending in disaster officials, PNG Defence Force and the Department of Works and Highways to meet provincial and district officials in Enga and also start relief work, recovery of bodies, and reconstruction of infrastructure,” Marape said.

“I will release further information as I am fully briefed on the scale of destruction and loss of lives.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Several teachers from a Papua New Guinean school in Porgera, Enga province, are now being investigated by police after they allegedly instigated the torture, burning and interrogation of four women over sorcery accusations on the campus.

The four women who worked as cleaners at the school were attacked after one of the teachers died suddenly last week.

According to Enga police commander acting Superintendent George Kakas, the women had been seen chatting with the teacher last week before he collapsed an hour after being seen with the women.

PPC Kakas said the women were then forced into the home of the deceased teacher and interrogated for 11 hours by the colleagues of the deceased and his relatives.

“Last week the teacher collapsed. He was believed to have conversed in a casual meeting with women earlier on in the day and collapsed in the afternoon,” Superintendent Kakas said.

“Relatives and some teachers and public servants accused the four women of practising sorcery and taking out the deceased’s heart.

“They were taken into the teacher’s house and brutally tortured with bush knives, axes and iron rods from about 5pm that evening until 4am the next day when they were rescued by security force members consisting of Porgera police and PNG Defence Force soldiers.

Relatives barred police
“When police tried to have a look at the body of the deceased, his relatives refused to let police near the body, saying that ‘the glasman was seeing the body and that the teacher was still alive’.

Glasmen are men who claim to be able to identify and accuse women of sorcery.

“I commend the work of the police station commander Porgera, Inspector Martin Kelei, who led the team to the teacher’s house after a tip-off and rescued [the tortured women].

“They were all driven safely to Wabag hospital where they are now undergoing treatment. I immediately instructed my OIC CID Wabag to do a postmortem on the body.

“The next day they confirmed the teacher died of a massive heart attack.”

Superintendent Kakas said: “There you have it. It’s a confirmed heart attack, and the ladies were falsely accused, tortured and nearly killed.

“We know the identities of the key instigators of the torture of the four women and are working to apprehend them.

“I will make it my personal business to ensure these perpetrators are arrested and charged.

I have an investigation team working on that through my OIC [officer in charge] sorcery accusation-related violence unit here in Wabag.”

Republished from the PNG Post-Courier with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz