It’s confirmed, 15 people have been buried in the landslide in Goilala with only 2 bodies recovered so far.
After receiving reports yesterday morning, Member for Goilala and Minister for Transport, William Samb traveled to the site to carry out an assessment.
From this visit, his office has confirmed that 15 people have been buried and work has begun to recover the bodies of the deceased.
Locals living around this area are working with whatever tools they have to try to dig through the dirt and mud in an effort to recover the bodies of those buried.
Only two bodies were recovered so far at the time of filing this report but more bodies are expected to be recovered as recovery work continues.
Sadly, given the remoteness of the location, recovery work will be manual and basic tools needed to clear the debris have been flown in today with more expected to be flown in during the course of the week.
Tools include spades, bush knives, and chain saws.
Minister Samb, together with the Central Provincial Government is working to get these supplies including food rations up to the people.
The Provincial Disaster Officials together with the district CEO also flew to the site today to join the member.
Governor of Central, Robert Agarobe is also expected to travel there during the week and work with the district authorities to recover the rest of the bodies.
They will then repatriate the bodies back to their home villages across Goilala.
The landslide occurred at 3 am on Monday morning and swept away makeshift shelters on the ridge, burying them under the mud.
Member for Goilala, William Samb believes the disaster was a result of continuous rain and clearing of the forest by the alluvial miners.
Meantime, those who died are from different parts of Goilala who migrated there to pan for gold.
