At least 53 people have been killed in fighting in Papua New Guinea's remote highlands, where deadly violence has escalated between more than a dozen tribal groups, a senior security official said.
George Kakas, the acting superintendent of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the death toll from the incident in Enga province was likely to rise. His comments did not indicate when the killings occurred, and police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“These tribesmen were killed all over the countryside, all over the bush,” Mr Kakas told the station. “Police and defense forces had to do their best to calm the situation at their own risk.”
The bodies were found in a field, along roads and near a river, Mr Kakas said. Video footage and photos shared on social media, the authenticity of which could not immediately be confirmed, showed dozens of bodies piled in the back of an open truck.
According to police, up to 17 different tribes were involved in the clashes.
Papua New Guinea, which is larger than California, is home to about 10 million people. It is largely rural and a large part of the population works in agriculture. Culturally it is extremely diverse; According to Survival, a group that advocates for indigenous rights, more than 300 tribes are spread across the country and the neighboring Indonesian regions of Papua and West Papua.
Enga Province, located in central Papua New Guinea, has a long history of tribal violence, but recent violence has become more frequent due to political issues and tensions over resource management, which have combined to escalate violence against one another, it said it's the ABC. Last year, authorities imposed a three-month lockdown in the province to contain unrest.
At least 150 people have been killed in clashes in 2023, according to Australian news outlets, and the death toll has risen in recent years as tribesmen have switched from using traditional bows and arrows to high-powered firearms.
Enga Governor Peter Ipatas last year called on Australia to help security forces in Papua New Guinea curb violence. “We don’t have the capacity to fix this,” he told The Australian newspaper.