Papua New Guinea tribal conflict kills at least 26 in highlands province

At least two dozen people were killed in violence between rival tribes in Papua New Guinea’s volatile Enga province on the weekend, police said, sending shockwaves through the Pacific island country just a month after it was rocked by riots and looting in the capital. 

Enga’s police commander George Kakas said the violence involving several tribes in the highland province’s Wapenamanda district began on Sunday morning. Some 26 bodies had been recovered so far, including gunmen hired by the tribes, he told BenarNews on Monday.

“Ambulin, Itiokon tribesmen staged a massive counterattack and slaughtered enemy tribesmen in a killing spree,” a police summary of events said. “The Sikin, Kaekin tribes went to stage an attack on the Ambulin, Itiokon tribes but were caught off guard and were ambushed and killed. More bodies are still being retrieved.”

A video circulating online shows bloodied bodies being piled onto a police truck. Kakas said it showed the aftermath of the violence in the remote highlands province.

“It has surpassed past tribal fight killings,” he said.

The latest example of Papua New Guinea’s tenuous grip on stability coincides with the parliamentary opposition’s attempt to get the legislature to vote on a motion of no confidence in Prime Minister James Marape. 

Papua New Guinea’s capital Port Moresby was engulfed by chaos on Jan. 10 after its police stopped work to protest a cut in the pay of government employees that was purportedly caused by a payroll system glitch.

At least 16 people died during the looting and arson that caused a severe blow to an economy already failing to provide sufficient jobs and incomes. 

The opposition’s efforts were deflated last week when government lawmakers unanimously supported a surprise motion of confidence in Marape. 

However it was quick to seize on the weekend’s violence as further evidence of the government’s failure to ensure stability and improved living standards for Papua New Guinea’s estimated 12 million people. 

“The country is experiencing serious law and order issues–it’s a war zone in some parts of the country,” an opposition statement said.

“The total incompetence of the national government under Prime Minister James Marape in concentrating power in Waigani [the seat of government] and not empowering our provincial governments is causing an escalation in lawlessness,” it said. 

Papua New Guinea is the most populous Pacific island country with an estimated 12 million people and endowed with significant mineral and other resources. But it has struggled to develop economically because of corruption, poor infrastructure, frequent tribal violence and deep inequality for women.

It has one police officer for about every 1,800 people, nearly four times less than the level recommended by the United Nations to ensure law and order, according to a Griffith Asia Institute report released last year. The ratio of police to people has declined substantially in the past half century as Papua New Guinea’s population tripled.

The country is increasingly the focus of China-United States rivalry for influence in the Pacific. It signed a wide-ranging defense cooperation agreement with the U.S. last year that could bolster the U.S. military presence in the region, but doesn’t help the country address challenges such as tenuous law and order and grinding poverty.