"Indonesia has planned to deliver the aid packages to PNG because the country is our neighbor," the ministry's spokesperson, Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, told journalists in Jakarta on Wednesday (May 29).
The Indonesian government, however, has yet to decide the forms of aid packages that it will deliver to PNG, as related ministries and government agencies are still finalizing the plan, Iqbal remarked.
According to media reports, the death toll from the landslide that ravaged Yambali Village in Enga Province, about 600 km away from Port Moresby, at about 3 a.m. local time on Friday, May 24, remained uncertain.
The Associated Press (AP) quoted PNG's National Disaster Center Luseta Laso Mana as saying in a letter to the United Nations Resident Coordinator in PNG that the landslide had "buried more than two thousand people alive" and caused "major destruction" in Yambali Village.
"The (PNG) government figure is roughly triple the UN estimate of 670 killed by the landslide," AP reported on Tuesday, May 28.
ABC News, however, quoted a local official on Wednesday, May 29, as saying that the death toll from the landslide reached 162, or "far fewer than estimated by the United Nations or the country's government."
Apart from the uncertain number of fatalities, the United Nations said in a press statement released on May 28 that it continued to assist PNG authorities with search and rescue efforts.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM), UNDP, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and UN Women had also pledged to provide relief supplies and psychosocial support in coordination with the local emergency response team.
UNICEF had reportedly distributed several hygiene and dignity kits containing buckets, jerricans, and soap, as well as reusable sanitary pads, multipurpose cloth, and other items that had been propositioned with the local Provincial Health Authority.
Meanwhile, in the aftermath of this deadly landslide, the Indonesian Embassy officers in Port Moresby coordinated with local authorities and contacted several members of Indonesian communities in PNG.
According to the Foreign Ministry's Indonesian Citizen and Legal Entity Protection Director Judha Nugraha, none of the 1,317 Indonesian citizens registered in PNG had fallen victim to the catastrophe.
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Translator: Nabil I, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Tia Mutiasari
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