蜜芽传媒

In Papua New Guinea - the country that is north of Australia, east of Indonesia - dozens of people have been killed in an ambush in the remote Highlands region. The area has long struggled with violence, but these latest deaths are believed to be the worst in years.

An influx of illegal firearms has made tribal clashes more deadly and fuelled a cycle of killings. According to the police, the victims were shot dead during a tribal dispute in the northern province of Enga.

For more, Newsday heard from Andrew Anton Mako who's a visiting lecturer and project co-ordinator for the Australian National University - University of Papua New Guinea Partnership based in the capital, Port Moresby, and is himself from Enga province.

"This particular tribal conflict dates back to 2004 and it has continued. It's quite terrible... in the past people used bows and arrows and spears to fight. Now with the influx of big powerful machine guns it causes a lot of fear and many people are being killed."

(Pic: Tribal huts in the Highlands region of Papua New Guinea; Credit: Getty Images)

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