Maila leaves Bougainville counting its dead

Cyclone Maila has killed at least 11 people in Papua New Guinea, with flooding and landslides tearing through Bougainville and cutting off communities already struggling with damaged roads, broken bridges and disrupted food supplies. Local authorities and relief officials said the toll could still rise as reports continue to come in from remote areas where communications remain patchy after the storm crossed the region late last week.

The worst single incident reported so far was a landslide in Central Bougainville that killed eight people when a house was buried during the night. Local reporting and broadcaster accounts indicated that children were among the dead. Other fatalities were linked to flood and storm impacts elsewhere in the region, taking the confirmed death toll to 11 by Monday, 13 April. The delay in establishing the full scale of the disaster has reflected the difficulty of reaching mountainous inland settlements and scattered island communities after several days of extreme weather.

Maila struck as an unusually powerful system for that part of the Pacific. It intensified in the Solomon Sea and, at its peak, was described in Australian reporting as having reached category 5 strength before weakening. By Saturday, 11 April, Papua New Guinea weather authorities and regional reporting said it had been downgraded to a tropical low as it tracked away. The weakening of the system, however, came only after heavy rain, violent winds and storm-driven flooding had already caused broad destruction across Bougainville and neighbouring areas.

Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea, has borne the brunt of the damage. Officials said schools would stay shut this week after infrastructure losses and supply disruptions made normal operations impossible. Roads and bridges were washed out or badly damaged, isolating villages and blocking the movement of food and emergency assistance. Access to Panguna, the former copper and gold mining centre that remains symbolically and economically important to Bougainville, was also reported to have been cut.

President Ishmael Toroama urged residents not to lose hope as the autonomous government assessed the damage and appealed for patience. Prime Minister James Marape said communication with affected communities remained difficult and that relief operations were being mobilised to deliver food, water and temporary shelter. That official language has underscored the central challenge facing Papua New Guinea after many natural disasters: the gap between the speed of a weather emergency and the slower pace of response in rugged terrain with limited transport links.

Preliminary assessments carried by Papua New Guinea broadcasters indicated that more than 10,000 people have been affected in Bougainville, while close to 20,000 may need immediate assistance. Those figures are early and may change as more communities are reached, but they suggest a disaster extending far beyond the confirmed deaths. The damage profile points to a familiar pattern in Pacific storms: homes destroyed or weakened, crops lost, roads rendered unusable and schools turned into temporary relief hubs or left unable to reopen at all.

Australia has responded with a relief package worth A$2.5 million for Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, with A$1 million allocated for Papua New Guinea’s response in Bougainville and Milne Bay. The support adds an external lifeline at a time when national and autonomous authorities are still trying to establish the extent of the damage. Aid, though, will only partly address the longer-term issues exposed by Maila: weak transport connectivity, fragile rural housing, and the difficulty of rapidly moving emergency supplies through isolated island and mountain communities.