THE GUARDIAN
Papua New Guinea’s prime minister James Marape has blamed “extraordinary rainfall” and changes to weather patterns for multiple disasters in the Pacific Island nation this year, including a landslide last week which may have killed thousands.
Parts of a mountain in the Maip-Mulitaka area in Enga province in PNG’s north collapsed in the early hours of last Friday and Marape said more than 2,000 people are estimated to have died, with up to 70,000 people living in the area affected by the disaster.
“Our people in that village went to sleep for the last time, not knowing they would breathe their last breath as they were sleeping peacefully. Nature threw a disastrous landslip, submerged or covered the village,” Marape told parliament on Wednesday.
Estimates of the death toll from Friday’s landslide have differed over recent days, with some local officials estimating the number to be much lower than that given by Marape.
Natural disasters have cost the country more than 500m kina ($126m) this year, before the landslide at Enga, he said.
“This year, we had extraordinary rainfall that has caused flooding in river areas, sea level rise in coastal areas and landslips in a few areas,” Marape said.
“We have faced extraordinary weather patterns and changes from dryness to wetness,” he added.
Deputy prime minister John Rosso said: “The climate change effects that are here now is not just in Enga, for the last two months we have seen unprecedented disasters throughout the country.”
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