The death toll from two landslides in southern Ethiopia rose to at least 229, a local official in the remote Gofa Zone said on Tuesday, as the search for survivors continued into the second day.
The landslides occurred on Sunday evening and Monday morning in a remote mountainous region after heavy rains.
Using shovels or their bare hands, local residents on Tuesday searched desperately for survivors after a landslide in a remote area of southern Ethiopia killed at least 229 people, the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa nation.
Crowds gathered at the site of the tragedy in an isolated and mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state, according to images posted on social media by the local authority
So far, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have lost their lives after the disaster struck in the Kencho-Shacha locality in the Gofa Zone on Monday, the local Communications Affairs Department said in a statement.
Five people had been pulled alive from the mud and were receiving treatment at medical facilities, the government-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation reported earlier.
It quoted local administrator Dagemawi Ayele as saying that most of the victims were buried after they went to help the inhabitants of a house hit by an initial landslide.
“Those who rushed for live-saving work have perished in the disaster including the locality’s administrator, teachers, health professionals and agricultural professionals,” EBC quoted Dagemawi as saying.
Images posted on social media by the Gofa authority showed residents carrying bodies of the dead on makeshift stretchers, some wrapped in plastic sheeting.
Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with around 120 million people, is highly vulnerable to climate disasters including flooding and drought.
