PORT MORESBY, Feb 19, 2024 (AFP) – Fifty-three people have been killed in tribal violence in Papua New Guinea’s highlands, police said, the latest in a string of mass deaths linked to long-running feuds in the region.
Police Commissioner David Manning said on Sunday that officers and soldiers had retrieved the bodies of 53 men.
They are believed to have been killed near the town of Wabag, 600 kilometres northwest of the capital Port Moresby.
The exact circumstances of the deaths were not immediately clear, but police said there had been reports of heavy gunfire in the area.
The incident is thought to be linked to a conflict between Sikin and Kaekin tribesmen.
Police received graphic videos and photos purporting to be from the scene.
They showed stripped and bloodied bodies lying by the side of the road and piled up on the back of a flatbed truck.
Highland clans have fought each other in Papua New Guinea for centuries, but an influx of automatic weapons has made clashes more deadly and escalated the cycle of violence.
Papua New Guinea’s government has tried suppression, mediation, amnesties and a range of other strategies to control the violence, with little success.
The military had deployed about 100 troops to the area, but their impact has been limited and the security services remain outnumbered and outgunned.
The killings often take place in remote communities, with clansmen launching raids or ambushes in revenge for previous attacks.
Civilians, including pregnant women and children, have been targeted in the past.
The murders are often extremely violent, with victims hacked with machetes, burned, mutilated or tortured.
Police privately complain that they do not have the resources to do the job, with officers so badly paid that some of the weapons that end up in the hands of tribesmen have come from the police force.
Opponents of Prime Minister James Marape’s government on Monday called for more police to be deployed and for the force’s commissioner to resign.
Papua New Guinea’s population has more than doubled since 1980, placing increasing strain on land and resources and deepening tribal rivalries.
