Landslip kills 5 in family

By GLORIA BAUAI and JIMMY KALEBE
FIVE from a family of eight are confirmed dead and three missing after they were swept away in their sleep by a landslide in Mumeng, Morobe, early on Wednesday.
They were in a makeshift camp under the hills after spending the day searching for gold to pay for their school fees.
The parents and three siblings died while three remained missing last night near the remote Hekeng village in ward three of Mumeng, Bulolo since early on Wednesday.
Manalos Aviation, providing medevac in the area, helped retrieve and uplift the five bodies and transferred them to hospital.
Rescuers were talking about looking for bodies yesterday as they believed the family were swept away by river floods.
According to Bulolo chief executive officer Joe Paru, who was on site to help with search and rescue and relief supplies, the bodies were evacuated to the Angau Memorial Hospital morgue.
He said: “We are still searching for the bodies”.
“The villagers have searched nearby areas but could not locate the bodies.
“They must have been washed down to Watut River and further on to the main Markham River.”
Paru said 11 people were caught in the landslide at about 3am but three survived and were rescued.
“The family went to the river to conduct alluvial mining for school fees of the children,” he said.
“It was late in the afternoon so they decided to camp there without realising that a landslip was already trapped on the side of the mountain where they camped.”
He said while the family were asleep at around 3am, the landslip, aggravated by constant rain, finally made its way down, taking with it the family’ makeshift shelter into the flooded river.
Paru said Manalos also helped deliver food and medical equipment to the affected area.
Bulolo MP and Deputy Prime Minister Sam Basil called for the 2021 Morobe budget to be fast-tracked.
Basil said Morobe’s treasury office, including Bulolo’s, were still closed because the provincial budget was yet to be passed.
“We have no choice but to borrow funds to cater for this emergency,” Basil posted on his Facebook page.