The UN puts the death toll in the Papua New Guinea avalanche at 670

A United Nations agency estimated this Sunday that more than 670 people died in the landslide that buried a remote village in northern Papua New Guinea in the early hours of Friday, according to Australian state television ABC.

The head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Papua New Guinea, Serhan Aktoprak, has told ABC that according to the new estimates, more than 150 houses were buried through a layer of rocks and earth between six and eight meters deep and they fear that more than 670 people have lost their lives.

Aktoprak stated that the disaster area in the village of Kaokalam600 kilometers from the country’s capital, Port Moresby, remains dangerous due to the risk of new avalanches, so they are working to evacuate about 1,250 survivors.

“My companions had to escape from the place due to the increasing danger, since Rocks continue to fall without stopping and the earth continues to slide“, indicated the head of the IOM in the country, who added that this, together with the large amount of land that had already fallen, is putting pressure on the houses in the area, making evacuation necessary.

About 4,000 people officially live in the area where the avalanche occurred, although authorities estimate that the number of people affected is greater, since the town where it occurred is a place where locals fleeing conflicts and tribal clashes in nearby villages take refuge.

Much of the village of Kaokalam was buried by a layer of between six and eight meters of rocks and stones and the avalanche affected an area of ​​​​more than 200 square kilometers, including about 150 kilometers from the main highway of the province, which makes rescue efforts and aid to survivors difficult.

The affected area usually suffers from intense rains and flooding, and landslides are not unusual in the country, where, despite the wealth of natural resources, a large part of its more than nine million inhabitants live in extreme poberty and is isolated due to a lack of communications and infrastructure, especially in remote places like the current catastrophe.