A days-long, round-the-clock search for v*****s of a landslide that may have buried hundreds of people in Ethiopia is still underway, a government official said Tuesday, as the confirmed d***h toll rose to 229 from 146.
The landslide hit a rural region of the Gofa Zone in Geze Gofa District of the landlocked nation twice on Sunday, July 21 and Monday. However, as of Tuesday, search-and-rescue efforts were hampered by unstable rubble and debris as heavy rains continued to fall.
“I don’t know when it will stop. We are still recovering bodies,” Markos Melese, head of the National D******r Response agency in Gofa Zone, said by telephone.
The region, which is in southern Ethiopia, is densely populated, according to its chief administrator, Dagmawi Ayele, and has a young population. He told the BBC that the d**d included both adults and children, while ten people rescued alive were receiving treatment in hospital.
He said the d***h toll was likely to be high as they were also searching for the police officers, teachers and residents from nearby villages who were buried alive when the landslides occurred the second time while they were conducting search-and-rescue operations on Monday.
“We are still digging,” he told the BBC.
President Abiy Ahmed said he was deeply saddened by the terrible l**********e and that federal officials had been deployed to reduce the impact of the d******r.
“We stand in strong solidarity with the people and Government of Ethiopia as rescue efforts continue to find the m*****g and assist the displaced,” African Union chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat wrote on the social media platform X.
Gofa zone is roughly 450 kilometres (270 miles) from the capital of Addis Ababa, a drive of about 10 hours, and is located north of the Maze National Park.
The heavy rain and flooding it has been experiencing between April and early May might have been the cause of the recent landslide which has claimed the lives of hundreds, according to the UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA.
Many factors contribute to flooding, but a warming atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely.
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