Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government was ready to assist Papua New Guinea, which is Australia’s nearest neighbor and the largest single recipient of Australian foreign aid.“That is very disturbing the news that has come out of Papua New Guinea,” Albanese said before the death toll was revised down.“We remain available to provide whatever support we can in a practical way, of course, to help our friends in PNG,” Albanese added.Albanese said Australia was already providing “considerable support” for Papua New Guinea and was helping train the country’s police officers.Tribal violence in the Enga region has intensified since elections in 2022 that maintained Prime Minister James Marape’s administration. Elections and accompanying allegations of cheating and process anomalies have always triggered violence throughout the country.Enga Gov. Peter Ipatas said there were warnings that tribal fighting was about to erupt.“From a provincial perspective, we knew this fight was going to be on and we (alerted) the security forces last week to make sure they took appropriate action to ensure this didn’t occur,” Ipatas said.Ipatas described the violence as a “very, very sad occasion for us in the province and it’s a bad thing for the country.”Scores of people have died in tribal fighting in the Enga region in the past year.Port Moresby’s Post-Courier newspaper has reported that high-powered firearms used in the recent fighting made it risky for police to enter the battlefields.Police said they were assisted by the military in protecting the general public and government property.Papua New Guinea government lawyer Oliver Nobetau expected more lives would be lost in retaliation for the massacre.“There’s a big concern that this will continue on. Revenge killings tend to be a normal thing that happens,” said Nobetau, who is on temporary assignment to the Sydney-based international policy think tank Lowy Institute.
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