Wed 10 July 2019:
Pregnant women among victims of killings in small village of Karida, in an area beset by internecine violence
At least 15 women and children have been killed in a massacre in Papua New Guinea’s Hela province, in one of the worst outbreaks of tribal violence in the country for years. The killings happened on early Monday morning during a raid on Karida, a village of about 800 people in the interior of the country.
Philip Pimua, the officer in charge of the Karida sub-health centre, who was in the village at the time of the attack, told the media that there were 16 victims – eight children aged from one to 15 and eight women, two of whom were pregnant. RNZ reports that there were 15 victims – 10 women and five children – citing Tari police spokesman Thomas Levongo who examined the scene at Karida. Levongo could not be reached for comment.
Pimua said the attack happened at about 6am on Monday morning, with people killed after opening the door to attackers.
“I wake up in the morning, go to make a fire in my kitchen, at the same time I heard the sound of guns, then I saw some of the houses they were burning, so I knew that enemies are already inside the village,” Pimua said. “So I just ran away and hide in the bush, then later on, about 9 or 10, I came back and saw bodies chopped into pieces and houses were burnt.”
As well as guns, bush knives were used in the attack.
Pimua said he knew all the victims – “they are my people, I know them” – but that some were so badly dismembered that he and other villagers struggled to identify the remains.
The ICRC Papua New Guinea head of mission, Ahmad Hallak, said: “We are very concerned by reports that women and children have been killed and urge all sides to refrain from targeting anyone who is not directly engaged in the fighting.
“We are monitoring the situation closely and are in touch with our contacts in the area. Once we can confirm the situation has stabilised, an ICRC team will visit the area to assess the humanitarian consequences of the fighting before deciding on a possible response.”
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