Family feud kills 18 in Papua New Guinea

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - At least 18 people were killed, including women and a child, after a dispute arose over land among members of a family in Papua New Guinea.

The family still continues fighting in the Tagali and Tebi rural area of Tari-Pori, Hela, daily The National reported on Monday.

A local social vounteer Komengisaid said: “The families had been moving out of Tagali and Tebi as the fighting entered its second week.”

Inspector Teddy Agwi, top police officer of the region, said the violence was triggered by the family feud by “two cousins fighting over a piece of land.”

The local church has extended support and shelter to the affected families displaced due to the fighting.

The southern Hela province is home to nearly 250,000 people which was raised to the provincial status in May 2012. It has three districts which were previously part of the Southern Highlands province of the island nation.

“Six more men were killed near the Mulubi village in the Tebi local level government.

“Their bodies remained where they were killed during the night before police retrieved them,” Agwi said.

“The six were seeking to avenge the killing of a relative in Port Moresby on Friday. But as they were nearing the Mulubi village, they were gunned down.”

The police officer said threats were issued against Tari Hospital workers.

“I have told the man who issued the threat to turn himself in at the Tari police station as soon as possible,” he said, adding that relatives of the dead were asked to take the bodies for burial.