(3 Minutes Read)
More than 229 people have died in landslides after heavy rain in southwestern Ethiopia the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa country. Kencho Shacha Gozdi district council stated that the death toll could rise further as local people used shovels and their bare hands to search for survivors.
Most of the victims were rescue workers buried in a mudslide on Monday morning as they searched the steep terrain for survivors of another mudslide the previous day. Many people remained unaccounted for, said Markos Melese, director of the disaster response agency in Gofa Zone. Some children are hugging corpses, having lost their entire family, including their mother, father, brother, and sister, due to the calamity.
Images from the site show crowds standing on red soil and some using their bare hands to dig through it in rescue efforts.
Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims as we stand in strong solidarity with the people and Government of Ethiopia as rescue efforts continue to find the missing and assist the displaced, stated Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairperson of the African Union Commission.
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According to the UN Office for the coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Gofa Zone is a mountainous area in the South Ethiopia regional state and seasonal rains between April and May in the state caused flooding, damaged infrastructure and displaced more than a thousand people.
