JAKARTA
At least 20 people are dead and many others are feared trapped after a landslide struck a village in Papua New Guinea’s Enga province, state-run media reported Friday.
The landslide hit the small village of Kukas in Minamb Valley in Wapenmanda District overnight, according to the National Broadcasting Corporation of Papua New Guinea.
Lasro Mola Panga, chairman of the Minamb Valley Peace and Security Foundation, said local villagers have launched an emergency rescue operation, and so far, 20 bodies have been recovered from the site, while the search continues for survivors.
“We currently don’t know the total number of people killed in this landslide, and the figure may still go up after we do a head count of everyone,” he said.
In May 2024, at least 670 people were killed in a major landslide in the Mulitaka area of Enga province.
