World

Women and children killed in tribal massacre

July 11, 2019 5:38 am

Children and pregnant women are among those murdered in a tribal massacre in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands area.

At least 24 people are confirmed to have died in a brutal flare-up of violence between rival tribes over several days in Hela province. Some reports put the death toll higher.

PM James Marape called the news “one of the saddest days of my life”, promising to track down the perpetrators.

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It is one of the worst outbreaks of tribal violence in PNG for years.

“It’s a very sad story,” Philip Undialu, governor of Hela told news agency Reuters, explaining the killings were part of a conflict running for years.

“It was retaliation of a previous attack. Both attacks were made in an innocent community where people were not expecting it and all of us are in a state of shock.”

Authorities say the region has for years struggled with violence, at times driven by disputes over the distribution of land and resource wealth.