MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Days of tribal violence in Papua New Guinea’s mountainous interior have left more than 35 people dead, a police official said on Tuesday.
Police Assistant Commissioner Joseph Tondon in Enga province said the death toll from the violence blamed on illegal miners was still being assessed.
“There was a fierce battle on Sunday. It’s estimated 35-plus men were killed in action,” Tondon told The Associated Press.
“I’m putting all the figures together. There were some innocent bystanders also murdered,” he added.
A United Nations’ humanitarian adviser for the South Pacific island nation, Mate Bagossy, on Monday estimated that between 20 and 50 people were killed in days of violence in Enga.
Fighting in the Porgera Valley broke out near the New Porgera gold mine, which has halted most of its operations because of the violence until at least Thursday.
Homes and businesses in Suyan village were razed in the fighting, the Post-Courier newspaper reported.
The conflict occurred near the site of a massive landslide in Enga on May 24. The national government estimates more than 2,000 villagers were buried and hundreds more displaced. The United Nations estimated only 670 villagers died but does not dispute that the death toll could be far higher.
A disaster management team led by the government and the U.N. Development Program was meeting on Tuesday in the national capital, Port Moresby, to coordinate a humanitarian response to the violence, which broke out in a dangerous and remote area.
Tribal warfare is a growing security problem across Papua New Guinea and is rife in Enga, where recovery has been slow since the landslide.
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