Yambali sits along a road leading from the capital that is now blocked, hampering relief efforts, he said.
“The land still continues sliding; therefore it makes it very difficult to operate on,” he said, citing firsthand reports from IOM staff and others deployed from the provincial capital to the affected village.
People cross over the landslide area to get to the other side in Yambali village, Papua New Guinea, on Friday.Credit: IOM/AP
The area affected covered the size of three to four football fields, and that the village was home to 3895 people. He said some houses in the village were spared.
Aktoprak spoke by phone from the capital, Port Moresby.
Water was inaccessible in the affected area, power lines were down, and villagers were likely to struggle with accessing food, Aktoprak said. “Immediate needs are shelter, other non-food items [like] blankets and bedsheets, food and drinking water,” he added.
“Everyone is desperately looking for missing family members,” he said. “My fear is that the death toll could be very high,” the New York Times quoted him as saying.
A convoy left the provincial capital of Wabag carrying food, water and other essentials to the devastated village 60 kilometres away on Saturday, Aktoprak said.
Villager Andrew Ruing said the survivors were in desperate need.
“People – they cannot cry or they cannot do anything because it’s difficult for them,” Ruing said in a video shown by the ABC. “Because such a situation has never happened in history. And therefore, we are calling on the national government, the people on the ground, or the business houses, the heights from everywhere, anywhere – we are seeking assistance from.”
More than six villages had been impacted by the landslide in the province’s Mulitaka region, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said on Saturday.
“Australia’s High Commission in Port Moresby is in close contact with PNG authorities for further assessments on the extent of the damage and casualties,” a DFAT spokesperson said in a statement.
ABC had earlier named the affected village as Kaokalam. CARE Australia confirmed the reports of a landslide in Yambali village. In a statement, it said highway access near Yambali was obstructed and hindering assessment and relief efforts.
An injured person is carried on a stretcher to seek medical assistance after a landslide in Yambali village, PNG.Credit: IOM/AP
Prime Minister James Marape said he would release information about the scale of the destruction and loss of life when it became available.
All food gardens that sustain the village’s subsistence farming population were destroyed and the three streams that provide drinking water were buried by the landslide.
Australia, Papua New Guinea’s most generous provider of foreign aid, said the government stood ready to help.
“All Australians grieve for our brothers and sisters in Papua New Guinea after the terrible landslide,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on X on Saturday.
“We send our deepest condolences to those affected. Australia stands ready to assist.”
Earlier, Foreign Minister Penny Wong posted: “The loss of life and destruction is devastating. As friends and partners, Australia stands ready to assist in relief and recovery efforts.”
Videos on social media showed residents pulling bodies from under rocks and trees.
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Belinda Kora, a Port Moresby-based ABC reporter, on Friday said helicopters were the only way of accessing the village, which is in the mountainous interior region known as the Highlands.
Telecommunications are poor in the country, particularly outside Port Moresby, where government data show 56 per cent of the nation’s social media users reside. Only 1.66 million people across the country use the internet and 85 per cent of the population lives in rural areas.
Reuters, AP