Nine confirmed buried alive

By MIRIAM ZARRIGA
GOILALA MP William Samb has confirmed that only nine people – not 15 as originally assumed – were killed when a landslide buried them alive as they slept in their homes.
The incident happened at dawn on Monday, Dec 28, at Saki village in the Woitape local level government of Goilala, Central.
The villagers have recovered the nine bodies but continued digging assuming that there could be six others.
They later concluded that the six people who had visited the village before the landslide could have left before it occurred.
“The assumption we worked on was that the six had stayed for the night,” Samb said.
“However, after we spoke to those who saw the visitors, we managed to check the information.
“And we can safely say that only nine souls were lost on that morning and not 15 as we had said earlier.”
Samb said the work by the Goilala authority continued in supporting those still mourning the loss of their nine relatives and friends.
“We agreed in Saki that we have to come to Port Moresby, organise ourselves and make sure that we do a formal close-up where we will ensure all customary obligations are done and then we officially declare that the search for the missing has now concluded with the recovery of the nine bodies.
“For now we are ensuring that food rations are sent to our affected people there.”
He said a disaster committee comprising provincial officers, district officers and villagers of Saki would be coordinating food rations, clothing and other items given by NGOs, business houses and individuals for the disaster.”