Papua New Guinea to relocate thousands affected by landslide

By Necva Tastan

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Papua New Guinea government on Thursday announced that it will relocate the affected residents away from the hazardous site of a massive landslide that killed more than 2,000 people.

Prime Minister James Marape revealed a plan to evacuate the 7,849 affected people from the Mulitaka disaster zone to a temporary location within Enga province.

He said arrangements for their permanent resettlement are being made, local media reported.

"The State will acquire land away from the disaster site, within the vicinity of the area and we will properly settle people away from the unstable area," Marape said.

Geotechnical assessments conducted by experts from New Zealand and Australian defense forces observed that the disaster zone remained unstable.

The experts recommended evacuation and infrastructure changes in the region, including the construction of a new bypass road, as the current road buried under rubble remains vulnerable to additional landslides.

The pre-dawn landslide occurred on May 24, burying homes, infrastructure, and farmland under up to eight meters of soil and debris. The Oceanian government has estimated that more than 2,000 people were buried under the soil.