Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape speaks at the 77th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters on September 22, 2022. Tribal violence in the Enga region has escalated since the 2022 elections that kept Prime Minister James Marape in power.
Julia Nickinson/Associated Press
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Julia Nickinson/Associated Press
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape speaks at the 77th United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters on September 22, 2022. Tribal violence in the Enga region has escalated since the 2022 elections that kept Prime Minister James Marape in power.
Julia Nickinson/Associated Press
MELBOURNE, Australia — At least 26 militants and an unconfirmed number of bystanders have been killed in a gunfight between tribes in Papua New Guinea, police said Monday.
Acting Superintendent George Kakas of the Royal Papua New Guinea Police said on Sunday that the tribe, its allies and mercenaries were ambushed on their way to attack neighboring tribes in the South Pacific country's remote, high-altitude Enga province. Told.
Police Commissioner David Manning later described the clash as a “gunfight between warring tribes.” An unconfirmed number of villagers were also killed. Manning said police reinforcements were sent to the scene of the fighting.
Mr Manning told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: “It's not clear at this point exactly how far into the conflict we are.” “But the objective is to regain control or establish a significant presence in that disputed area and then engage our operations.”We'll walk you through the steps to deal with this type of incident. . ”
Kakas initially said 53 fighters had been killed. However, security forces later revised the death toll downward to 26.
Bodies were collected from battlefields, roads and riversides, loaded onto police trucks and taken to hospitals. Kakas said authorities were still counting “people who were shot, injured and fled into the bushes.”
Papua New Guinea is a diverse country of 10 million mostly subsistence farmers who speak 800 languages. Domestic security is a challenge for the country's government as China, the United States and Australia seek closer security ties with the country in the strategically important region of the South Pacific.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government stands ready to support Papua New Guinea, Australia's closest neighbor and the single largest recipient of Australia's foreign aid.
“The news coming out of Papua New Guinea is very worrying,” Mr Albanese said before the death toll was revised downward.
“We will continue to provide whatever assistance we can in a practical way, and of course to help our friends in Papua New Guinea,” Albanese added.
Mr Albanese said Australia was already providing “substantial support” to Papua New Guinea and was helping train the country's police officers.
Tribal violence in the Enga region has escalated since the 2022 elections that kept Prime Minister James Marape in power. Elections and associated allegations of fraud and process irregularities have always sparked violence across the country.
Enga governor Peter Ipatas said there were warnings that inter-tribal fighting was about to break out.
“From the state's perspective, we know this fight will continue and we (warned) the security forces last week to take appropriate action to prevent this from happening,” Ipatas said.
Ipatas called the violence “a very sad event for all of us who live in this state and bad for the country.”
Dozens of people have been killed in inter-tribal fighting in the Enga region over the past year.
Port Moresby's Post Courier newspaper reported that it was dangerous for police to enter the battlefield because of the use of high-powered firearms in recent fighting.
Police said they were supported by the military in protecting the public and government property.
Papua New Guinea government lawyer Oliver Novetau predicted more lives would be lost in retaliation for the massacre.
“There is great concern that this situation will continue. Revenge killings tend to be commonplace,” said Novetau, who is currently on temporary assignment at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based international policy think tank. said.
“Tribal violence is common, but never on this scale,” Novetau added. His comments were related to the increased death toll, but he later said they also applied to the revised death toll of 26.
Novetau said police had limited resources to deal with such “large-scale” violence.
“Tribal violence is endemic, and governments with limited resources will seek to deploy police wherever possible to curb security issues,” he said.
