Sydney, Australia, Feb 19 (EFE).- At least 64 people are believed to have been killed in a massacre in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea.
The men were shot dead early Sunday morning during an ambush, police said, marking an escalation of tribal fighting in Enga province.
“This is by far the largest (killing) I’ve seen in Enga, maybe in all of Highlands as well, in Papua New Guinea,” Royal PNG Constabulary Acting Superintendent George Kakas told Australian public broadcaster ABC.
Local news outlet Papua New Guinea Post-Courier reported that 56 bodies were recovered on Sunday, and at least another eight on Monday, with more expected to be found.
It said high-powered firearms including AK47s and M16s, as well as homemade guns, were used during the massacre.
Kakas said that the incident occurred when a tribe, their allies and mercenaries, were on their way to attack a neighboring tribe when they were ambushed.
“We started collecting bodies, scattered all over the battlefield, the roads, the riverside … and they were loaded onto police trucks and taken to the hospital,” he told ABC.
Local media published images of bodies lined up on the back of a truck and scattered over a road.
Tribal violence in Enga, in which 17 tribes are believed to be involved, has worsened since the last election in 2022.
Another series of violent incidents occurred in September last year after a tribe was accused of killing a man, forcing authorities to restrict the movement of villagers.
Papua New Guinea, a resource-rich nation with around 40 percent of its 12 million population living in poverty, is isolated by connectivity and infrastructure problems, especially in remote areas where security and basic healthcare and education is scarce.
The country – whose government signed a security agreement with Canberra in December that includes financial aid to modernize its police forces – also has a long history of political intrigue, corruption and internal conflicts. EFE
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