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

Prime Minister James Marape has commended Papua New Guinea’s police, defence force and the local community for their quick action in the release of an Australian pilot and two local workers who were kidnapped in the Highlands yesterday.

The pilot of Hevilift and two locals were at Hela’s Mt Sisa on routine work at a Digicel tower yesterday when they were kidnapped by an armed group in the area.

The group demanded a ransom to be paid.

However, due to quick action by the police, defence and locals in the area, the three were released safely a few hours after their kidnapping.

Marape, also the Tari-Pori MP in Hela, said lawlessness had “destroyed” the country.

“This country does not have any place for lawbreakers. You can hide and run now but you cannot hide forever,” he said.

“The more you hide and run, you will put yourself and your family at risk just like others who are in prison or dead because of their crimes.”

Special force ‘armed to teeth’
Marape said PNG would not tolerate lawbreakers.

“The special police force unit we are building will be armed to the teeth to deal with any crime anywhere, any place,” he said.

“Just as we did in the first kidnapping and this second attempt, we will not tolerate such crimes in our country.”

Police Commissioner David Manning said in a statement the Australian pilot of a Hevilift helicopter and two Papua New Guinean subcontractors were released without harm following “a rapid deployment of security force elements”.

Manning said security forces were mobilised and deployed in the area in large numbers through yesterday afternoon, and through local leaders the abductors had been warned that lethal force would be employed in order to free the captives.

He said the helicopter had since been flown to Hides with the pilot and sub-contractors on board.

Manning said security forces had entered the “direct apprehension” phase of the operation in which the abductors were being tracked so they could face justice.

“If these criminals resist or show any hostility towards police, other security personnel or any member of the public, their fates will be sealed,” he said.

‘Enough of domestic terrorists’
“Our country has had enough of these domestic terrorists who are undermining the safety and security of our communities, and they have no place walking free.

“These criminals will be caught or they will be killed in the process,” Manning said.

The pilot and technicians had been taken captive at a remote site in the vicinity of Mt Sisa, Tari.

It is understood the issue motivated the group was acting in connection with a compensation claim, and demands were being communicated by the group.

“I congratulate security forces personnel who worked together with local leaders and axillary police to bring this situation to a successful and swift conclusion,” Manning added.

Rebecca Kuku is a journalist with The National. Republished with permission from The National and PNG Post-Courier (front page screenshot).

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More than 400 workers from the Pacific evacuated to a Napier church during Cyclone Gabrielle should be able to return to more permanent accommodation in the next few days.

Workers from Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu and Solomon Islands had stayed at the Samoan Assembly of God church in Napier after being displaced by floodwaters that swept through New Zealand’s North Island towns during the cyclone.

Many were part of the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.

One of them, Taylor Crichton from Samoa, arrived on Thursday after he and 46 others living at Taylor Corporation accommodation in Puketapu ran up a hill on Tuesday morning to escape rising floodwaters.

“At 5am we woke to water pouring in under our beds. We were like, just grab whatever we can and just run.”

Forty-seven of them ran up the hill, where helicopters eventually flew them out five at a time. When the waters receded they were able to go back to their lodgings to get their belongings.

The group had been staying at the church since Thursday and Crichton said it was a relief to finally be able to call loved ones at home.

“We managed to contact our family back home and they were: ‘Where were you guys? And they all think that we lost our lives.”

Many of the workers had harrowing experiences, Samoan Assembly of God church volunteer Fuimaono Nathan Pulega said.

“A lot of them were stuck on roofs, rescued, and then others were stranded for two days and they haven’t eaten, or they were wet,” he said.

“Some were in a real bad bad frame of mind, so all we could do just as soon as they got off the army trucks or the vans was just hug and cry with them.”

Food and supplies had been donated by the workers’ employers, including T&G and Mr Apple, and some had come from further afield.

The Penina Trust in Auckland donated a car load of food and phones. Volunteer Catherine Ioane said supplies included comfort food such as corned beef, noodles and taro.

Most of the workers were to leave yesterday or today as their usual lodgings were cleaned up or more permanent accommodation was arranged.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

In the midst of all the destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle in Aotearoa New Zealand, Pasifika voices singing songs of praise and gratitude have rung out in church halls across Hawke’s Bay.

Pacific churches have been sanctuaries for RSE workers in the region, some of whom were clinging desperately to rooftops surrounded by raging waters during the height of the flooding.

Cyclone Gabrielle has robbed them of the few possessions they owned, but their faith remains.

Hastings Pasifika community leader Tofilau Talalelei Taufale said that RSE workers in the region were among those worst affected by the extreme weather events.

He is currently on the ground, helping the workers who have been left homeless.

Tofilau said hundreds of workers have been evacuated:

“Many of them have been displaced, many of them have lost their possessions and many of them had struggled to contact their families to let them all know that they are safe.”

“So there’s a whole multitude of issues that impacted the shock that our RSE community is going through right now.”

As far as the emergency response is concerned Tofilau said he understands there are a lot of worried people, but he calls for patience and understanding.

Another day for our Tangata Tuārangi 🇼🇸 RSE workers taking shelter at EFKS Hastings – though they’ve lost everything, their spirits remain high 🤎🙏🏾 once again big alofa to all the support. More details to come on how you can help from afar🤎 #cyclonegabrielle #HawkesBay pic.twitter.com/LUoO4UwJzh

— Ali Leota (@ALiLeota) February 15, 2023

“We acknowledge that as a community everyone is trying their best, given their limitations so that’s when we as a community will say, okay it is what it is, we’re gonna help.”

Although the clean-up is now well underway, it’s estimated that it could take months.

“We acknowledge that as a community everyone is trying their best, given their limitations so that’s when we as a community will say, okay it is what it is, we’re gonna help.”

Although the clean-up is now well underway, it’s estimated that it could take months.

To further complicate things telecommunication and internet connectivity remain limited – the safest method to keep connected is via smartphone, with data, but even that poses a challenge.

there’s just so many emotions on the ground here in Hawke’s Bay – but the resilience of our Tangata Tuārangi RSE workers from the Pacific keeps us all motivated and hopeful 🤎#CycloneGabrielle #HawkesBay #Fiji pic.twitter.com/TSu8Ytvo2Y

— Ali Leota (@ALiLeota) February 16, 2023

Tepura Trow of SENZ Training and Employment said despite the battering it had taken, Hawke’s Bay communities stood united.

“Our community has pulled together and they’ve got such an overwhelming and overload of donations coming in so I know that our focus and a lot of the NGOs and the community — our main focus is really, how can we set them up for after this.”

The Secretary and CEO of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples, Gerardine Clifford-Lidstone, said the outpouring of support has also been felt outside the hard-hit regions.

“For us, it’s not just about the Hawke’s Bay or the Auckland region, lots of questions from our concerned communities want to help and are wanting to provide blankets and towels and all those necessities of life that our families might need,” she said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. If you have been affected by the North Island floods and Cyclone Gabrielle, go to the Ministry of Social Development website to see how you can apply for help through the community support fund.

For our Pasifika community members, you can also contact the Ministry for Pacific Peoples website. The ministry has set out an extensive list of severe weather events information and contact numbers.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As a huge effort ramps up in Aotearoa New Zealand to restore essential services to thousands of people in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay, police hold “grave concerns” for some reported missing.

Five people have been confirmed killed in the devastation of Cyclone Gabrielle.

In Hawke’s Bay, a child was caught in rising water in the settlement of Eskdale, a woman died in a landslide, a body was found on the shore at Bay View, and a body believed to be caught in flood waters was found in Gisborne.

The body of a volunteer firefighter who had been missing in Muriwai, near Auckland, since Monday night was recovered yesterday.

By Wednesday, more than 1400 people had been reported as “uncontactable” using the police 105 online reporting form, mostly in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti.

While police expected a large number of the reports to be the result of communication lines being down, they confirmed they held “grave concerns” for several people missing in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti areas.

The navy ship HMNZS Manawanui is due in Tairāwhiti this morning with water supplies, and HMNZS Te Mana will sail to Napier to supply Wairoa with water and other essentials.

The NZ Defence Force expects to move a water treatment facility to Wairoa, and a rapid relief team that reached the town on Wednesday will be handing out up to 500 food packages.

Engineers and roading crews are checking bridges and clearing roads throughout both regions.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is due to fly to Gisborne today in what will be his first in-person look at the scale of destruction from Cyclone Gabrielle.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesian police and military have launched a joint mission to rescue a New Zealand pilot who was seized by rebels as a hostage in Indonesia’s Papua region on Tuesday, media reports say.

The Jakarta Post reports that authorities have set up a joint search and rescue operation to try and locate Susi Air pilot Philip Merthens, who was seized after landing a small plane on a remote airstrip in the Papuan highlands.

The rebels have threatened to execute him if their demands are not met.

Reuters reports that the West Papua National Liberation Army had claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the pilot would not be released until the Indonesian government acknowledged the independence of the Melanesian region of West Papua.

Merthens also had five passengers on board and it was unclear what had happened to them.

The Jakarta Post reports that the operation, codenamed Peaceful Carstensz, was launched by Indonesia police and the Indonesian military (TNI). The name Carstensz alludes to the mountainous region where the incident occurred.

Merthens’ location was still unclear due to conflicting information issued on Wednesday, the report said.

Consular support
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade also earlier said it was providing consular support to the Merthens’ family and said it would not comment further because of privacy reasons, The New Zealand Herald reports.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins told RNZ he had been given preliminary details and said the New Zealand embassy in Indonesia was working to help free Merthens, according to The Herald.

A researcher at Human Rights Watch in Jakarta has called for the immediate release of the hostages, including Merthens.

Researcher Andreas Harsono knew the main spokesperson of the rebel group, Sebby Sambom, after decades of research in the field.

He made a call to him personally to let the hostages go.

A former New Zealand pilot, who flew for Susi Air for just over a year ending in 2017, said pilots were warned by the airline to take precautions in the region — things such as keeping a low profile, travelling in groups, finding a driver to take them around, and not leaving compounds at night.

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

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape has visited Goilala’s remote Saki village near Tolukuma gold mine in the Goilala district of Central Province to see the extent of the damage caused by the landslide, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Fifteen people, including three children, are feared dead in this devastating natural disaster which occurred late last month.

The people were asleep in a long house near an alluvial mine site where they had been panning for gold, when the landslide, dragging trees and logs with it, buried the hut.

Prime Minister Marape flew to the disaster site yesterday by a chartered helicopter. He was  accompanied by the member for Goilala William Samb and media representatives.

Harlyne Joku of PNG Bulletin reports that three children were among the 15 people buried alive.

Acting Provincial Administrator Francis Koaba confirmed this in the latest update.

Koaba said 12 dead bodies had been retrieved while three were unaccounted for.

Koaba’s team from the Central Disaster Office have been hard at work excavating and retrieving bodies since flying to Saki on Wednesday last week.

“Yesterday we repatriated three bodies to their respective villages in Sopu and Kone,” he said.

“Today we delivered some relief supplies to the site and did one repatriation to Mondo. We also delivered more food supplies to people on site.”

This report republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Bad weather has delayed the second relief supplies drop to Papua New Guinea’s landslide victims at Saki village near the former Tolukuma gold mine in Woitape, Goilala, in Central province.

Acting Provincial Administrator Francis Koaba confirmed that yesterday a provincial disaster team and supplies, including digging tools and chainsaws, were provided to assist in retrieving the buried bodies.

Koaba also confirmed that 13 people were still buried in a landslide that swept down on the hut as they were sleeping at dawn on Monday.

Only two bodies have been recovered.

“As of yesterday, information received from the Member for Goilala William Samb on site is that a total of 15 people were buried alive in the landslide. Two were uncovered and 13 unaccounted for,” Koaba said.

“This morning the Disaster Team and supplies, including digging tools and chainsaws, were dispatched to the site by the Central Province Administration.

“The second flight this afternoon has been deferred to tomorrow [Thursday] due to bad weather,” Koaba said.

The Saki hamlet is a three hour walk across rugged and deep gorges from the former Tolukuma gold mine.

Saki has become a small hub where an estimated 3000 small scale alluvial gold miners from surrounding villages camp to pan for gold.

Harlyne Joku is a Papua New Guinean journalist. This article is republished with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

The death toll from flash floods and mudslides, triggered by days of torrential downpours in Indonesia’s easternmost Papua province, has risen to 89, with dozens of others missing, reports Al Jazeera.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesperson of the national disaster mitigation agency, said 89 bodies had been pulled from the mud and wreckage of collapsed homes by yesterday.

Another 159 people were injured, including 84 who were hospitalised, many with broken bones and head wounds.

The number of dead is expected to rise as rescue workers comb through affected areas, Nugroho said.

Floodwaters and landslides destroyed roads and bridges in several areas of Papua province’s Jayapura district around the capital early on Sunday, hampering rescue efforts, reports Al Jazeera.

More than 1600 rescuers, including soldiers and police, faced difficulties yesterday in clearing huge piles of debris due to shortages of heavy equipment, said Papua military spokesperson Colonel Muhammad Aidi.

“We face difficulties removing debris and the bodies under rubble as we don’t have enough excavators,” said Aidi, adding that rescuers were searching for 74 people reported missing and feared dead.

Bridge destroyed
“One district in the mountain is still not accessible to aid workers because a bridge connecting the area was destroyed. But there are no reports of fatalities there,” he said, adding that a navy ship was being sent to the location.

Nugroho said about 7000 residents were displaced from their homes, with more than 400 houses and other buildings damaged and thousands of others submerged.

Papua’s provincial administration declared a two-week emergency in order to get assistance from the central government. The province shares a border with Papua New Guinea.

Flooding is common in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season which runs from October to April.

In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.

The Southeast Asian archipelago of some 17,000 islands is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.

Residents examine their wrecked homes after flooding in Sentani, Jayapura, Papua on Sunday. Image: Gusti Tanati/Antara/Jakarta Post

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Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Tourists have been fleeing the Indonesian island of Lombok since yesterday after a magnitude-6.9 earthquake killed at least 98 people – a death toll expected to rise, reports Al Jazeera.

More than 200 people were seriously injured in Sunday’s shallow quake as rescue workers scrambled to reach survivors in remote areas.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the damage was “massive” in northern Lombok. In several districts, more than half of homes were destroyed or severely damaged.

READ MORE: What you need to know about the Lombok earthquake

Al Jazeera reports Nugroho saying the death toll will “definitely increase”, adding more than 20,000 people had been displaced.

Thousands of buildings collapsed, especially in the north, near the earthquake’s epicentre, and power and communications were down in some areas on the popular tourist island.

A tsunami alert was issued immediately after the quake struck, sending panicked people running to higher ground, but it was later rescinded, Al Jazeera reports.

“When it happened, we stood with residents in the middle of the street and watched houses collapse around us,” said Yustrianda Sirio, who was visiting the island.

‘Screamed hysterically’
“Many of us screamed hysterically.”

Some airlines have added extra flights to help tourists leave the island, while about 1200 foreign and domestic tourists were evacuated by boat from three Gili islands off Lombok’s northwest coast, said Nugroho.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Tanjung in northern Lombok (see video), said: “The destruction here is unbelievable.

“After there was a tsunami alert yesterday, a lot of [tourists] panicked; they climbed into trees, they ran into the hills, a lot of people got injured there,” she said.

“There’s no arrangement, there’s no transport, there’s no food, there’s no water for them, so a lot of them are completely lost, they’re completely confused, still scared and the only thing they’re telling me is that they want to leave the country as soon as possible.”

The Indonesian military said it was sending a vessel with medical aid and supplies and would provide logistical support.

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A Danish diver involved in the mission to successfully save 12 boys and their football coach from flooded Tham Luang cave in Thailand has hailed the children as “incredibly strong”, reports the Bangkok Post.

Ivan Karadzic, who runs a Thai diving business, described their treacherous escape journey as unprecedented.

“They [are being] forced to do something that no kid has ever done before. It is not in any way normal for kids to go cave diving at age 11,” he said Ivan Karadzic.

“They are diving in something considered [an] extremely hazardous environment in zero visibility. The only light that is in there is the torch light we bring ourself,” he told the BBC in an interview.

The boys, aged from 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach, ventured into Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai’s Mae Sai district on June 23.

They became trapped when heavy rains flooded the cave. Two British divers found them on July 2 on a slope in pitch darkness 4km inside the cave.

More than 100 divers have helped with the extraction. Conditions were so dangerous a retired Thai Navy Seal died on Friday while trying to lay out oxygen tanks underwater in a tunnel, and the rescue chief at one point dubbed the operation “Mission Impossible”.

-Partners-

Oxygen tanks
Karadzic, who was stationed about half-way along to replace oxygen tanks, said the rescue workers had feared the worst.

“We were obviously very afraid of any kind of panic from the divers,” Karadzic said.

“I cannot understand how cool these small kids are, you know?

“Thinking about how they’ve been kept in a small cave for two weeks, they haven’t seen their mums. Incredibly strong kids. Unbelieva­ble, almost,” he added.

The chief of the Tham Luang mission officially announced last night that the rescue of all 13 people trapped in the cave had been accomplished and the restoration of the area would follow.

Rescue operation chief Narongsak Osotthanakorn told a media conference at the Pong Pha Tambon administration organisation near Tham Luang cave that the last group of five trapped people had been extracted.

A doctor and three divers who had been with the 13 people since their discovery had also already reached the main entrance of the cave.

All rescued … the Thai boy cavers. Image: Bangkok Post

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz