“My biggest fear at the moment is corpses are decaying ... water is flowing and this is going to pose serious health risks in relation to contagious diseases”, Aktoprak said.
Australia, PNG nearest neighbour sent a disaster response team that was scheduled to arrive on Tuesday. It includes a geohazard assessment team and drones to help map the site.
Here’s a look at some of the challenges facing rescuers:
Difficult access, restive population
The village of at least 4000, but believed to be substantially larger, is in a mountainous and forested part of Enga province. It’s located alongside a winding highway to the town of Porgera and a mine that has produced billions of dollars of gold but whose security personnel have been accused by rights groups of abuses.
The highway was covered by the landslide, effectively cutting off Porgera and the other villages past Yambali from the provincial capital of Wabag, 60 kilometres from where the disaster occurred.
Emergency responders have brought aid in from Wabag, but have had to make the final 200 metres of the journey by foot over the rubble-covered highway.
Rescuers using only shovels and picks attempted for more than two days to clear six to eight metres worth of debris covering an area the size of three or four football fields, until an excavator donated by a local builder arrived on Sunday.
Survivors have been hesitant to allow heavy machinery to be used, however, because they do not want the bodies of their relatives harmed, said Aktoprak. The donated excavator was driven away on Monday, though it’s not clear whether that was related to locals’ objections or for another reason, he said.
Military engineers with additional heavy equipment are being transported to the disaster scene and were expected to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.
An injured person is carried on a stretcher to seek medical assistance after a landslide in Yambali village, PNG.Credit: IOM/AP
Deadly local feuds are complicating the response
Longtime tribal warfare in Enga province has not relented despite the disaster, meaning that soldiers have had to provide security for the aid convoys heading towards Yambali.
At least 26 men were killed in an ambush in February, and eight more died in a clash between two rival clans on Saturday in a longstanding dispute that’s unrelated to the landslide. About 30 homes and five retail businesses were burnt down in the fighting, officials said.
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Convoys have only been able to travel by daylight due to the security risks and, with a two-hour drive each way, their time on site has been seriously restricted, Aktoprak said in a phone interview from Port Moresby, the country’s capital.
Approximately 25 people from the UN, other agencies and the military have been making the daily journey. On Monday, they reported seeing burning houses and men armed with machetes along the way, Aktoprak said.
Emergency crews also face the threat of an ongoing natural disaster as the earth continues to shift in the disaster zone.
The debris is getting increasingly waterlogged from three streams covered by the landslide, making it dangerous to work on and increasing the possibility it could slide farther downhill. Communities below have already been evacuated, Aktoprak said.
“We have a situation that is getting worse and worse every moment,” he said.
Australian help
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had spoken to his PNG counterpart, James Marape, and informed him Australians were grieving alongside his people.
“Locals have described it as an exploding bomb and rushing towards homes like a sea wave. We do not know the full extent of it. Tragically there are reports it could be up to 2000 people buried beneath the mud and the rubble. All Papua New Guineans are suffering in the wake of this terrible disaster, and we held them in our hearts,” Albanese said.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said “we are working on transporting 750 family-sized shelters to the site. There is more that we are seeking to do. But, to be frank, part of the issue here is about not overwhelming a system which is currently under a lot of stress”.
AP, Nine
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