ABC: 53 people became victims of tribal massacres in Papua New Guinea
Photo: Didrik Johnck
Papua New Police Guinea reports a tragic event in the country's highlands where at least 53 people were killed. Information about this appeared on the pages of ABC.
Police believe the men were killed in an ambush in Enga province in a major escalation in tribal conflicts in the region. This incident was the worst incident of violence in the country's highlands in recent years.
«This is certainly one of the largest killings we have seen in Enga, and perhaps even in the whole of the Highlands, Papua New Guinea ,” said Royal Papua New Guinea Police Acting Superintendent George Kakas.
Enga province was under a police blockade for months last year as tribal violence escalated.
Law enforcement is working to prevent the flow of firearms and ammunition into the region, which is only worsening the violence.
< p>The participants in this tribal conflict belong to the same tribes that killed more than 60 people last year.
Acting Superintendent Kakas said that one tribe, along with its allies and mercenaries, was on its way to attack a neighboring tribe, but itself fell victim to an ambush.
Police and defense forces had to make every effort to suppress the situation, risking their lives.
“We collected bodies scattered throughout the battle zone, roads, along the river bank… and they were transported to the hospital in police trucks,” said an official. He added that the count of “the dead, the wounded and those who managed to escape into the forests” continues. «We fear that the number of victims could rise to 60 or even 65,» Kakas said.
Intertribal violence is common in the Enga region. In this case, the conflict began after a tribe from another village was blamed for the death of a man and then ambushed his funeral, killing five people with bladed weapons.
In the following months, a cycle of eye-for-eye revenge eye» got out of control. As more and more tribes became involved in the conflict, many villages were attacked and destroyed. As a result, 17 tribes took part in the clashes.