Shootouts between hundreds of tribal warriors have left at least 30 people dead in Papua New Guinea's highlands, with security forces given emergency powers to quell the violence.
Police said the unrest started in August when "illegal miners" inflicted life-threatening injuries on a landowner in the Porgera Valley, home to one of Papua New Guinea's largest gold deposits.
Police Commander Joseph Tondop said peace talks failed and the situation spiralled into intense tribal fighting that saw 300 shots fired on Sunday alone.
Officials said at least 30 men had been killed across the rival clans and hundreds of women and children displaced, with "many" homes burned to the ground.
Commander Tondop said two officials were also killed while waiting for a lift home after work.
The United Nations's humanitarian advisor for PNG, Mate Bagossy, told Associated Press that the number of those killed "is likely up to 50 people".
"The fighting is continuing," Mr Bagossy said.
"Some security forces have started moving in … so it remains to be seen what effect this will have," he said, referring to the army and police.
Police Commissioner David Manning said "lethal force" would be used to restore order in the remote highlands region.
"Put simply, this means if you raise a weapon in a public place or to threaten another person, you will be shot," Commissioner Manning said in a statement at the weekend.
"This deteriorating situation has been caused by illegal miners and illegal settlers who are victimising traditional landowners and using violence to terrorise local communities."
Police said illegal miners from the Sakar clan had been squatting on land owned by their Piande rivals.
He added that alcohol sales have been banned and an overnight curfew is in place, vowing to remove the artisanal miners from the valley.
The gold mine has stopped most of its operations because of the violence until at least Thursday.
"Over the past 24 hours a significant escalation in tribal fighting has impacted many of our local employees. Homes have been destroyed, family and friends injured or killed, and people have been unable to sleep while living in fear," New Porgera general manager James McTiernan said in a statement on Sunday.
"I am incredibly saddened by these devastating events and sincerely hope that the government will soon restore peace to the valley."
Human rights activist Cressida Kuala, from Porgera, said the area needed more police protecting community members.
"They are only a few and they cannot go beyond what they have been given orders to [do] … to take care of the mining properties and the government properties," she told the ABC's Pacific Beat program.
Ms Kuala said community members were falling victim to a conflict between other parties.
"My people are victim to this fight [that] we don't have any connection to," she said.
"And the women and children and the old people, the disabled people, we are suffering.
"I'm just very sorry and I feel so miserable about people not thinking of what they are doing. Their actions are not really human."
Porgera Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Nixon Pakea said people had taken shelter inside local business houses.
"It's very risky for the public to travel, all the business operators in Porgera … are locked inside."
The violence in Enga province has been unfolding not far from the site of a deadly landslide in May estimated to have killed hundreds of people.
More guns worsening violence
Tribal conflicts are a frequent occurrence in Papua New Guinea's highlands, but an influx of automatic weapons has made clashes deadlier.
The latest burst of fighting was turbocharged by the presence of more than "100 high-powered weapons in the wrong hands", police said.
Security teams have been posted along the highway leading to the mine, using loudspeakers to broadcast messages of peace.
The Porgera gold mine once accounted for around 10 per cent of Papua New Guinea's yearly export earnings.
But recurrent flare-ups of tribal violence and a drawn out government takeover have slowed production in recent years.
Gunfights between rival clans living near the mine killed at least 17 in 2022.
And at least 26 people were killed, including 16 children, when three villages in East Sepik province were attacked earlier this year.
Pope Francis urged Papua New Guinea to "stop the spiral" of violence during a visit earlier this month.
AFP/AP/ABC
