Ethiopia News: According to authorities, two landslides in southern Ethiopia have claimed the lives of over 200 people.
Heavy rains in a rural area of the Gofa zone caused a first landslide on Monday, followed by a second one on Tuesday that buried individuals who had gathered to assist, according to state officials.
According to a statement from the local Communications Affairs Department, the calamity that rocked the Kencho-Shacha community in the Gofa Zone on Monday claimed the lives of at least 148 men and 81 women.
The number of fatalities was confirmed by Southern Regional State lawmaker Alemayehu Bawdi, who also stated that “search and rescue efforts are ongoing.”
The death toll from two landslides in southern Ethiopia has risen sharply to 157 and the number could increase further. A landslide buried people in Gofa zone, and then a second one engulfed those who had gathered to help https://t.co/yZ7wThqoNd pic.twitter.com/gewrpqdFuj
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 23, 2024
According to an earlier report from the government-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), five persons were extricated alive from the muck and were undergoing treatment at medical institutions.
According to Dagemawi Ayele, the local administrator, the majority of those slain were buried after they went to assist the occupants of a house damaged by the 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.
🇪🇹 The number of people who died in the landslide in #Ethiopia has exceeded 200. 💔💔💔 pic.twitter.com/45hwkR8cqK
— Abdi (@Abdrezak1584333) July 23, 2024
Gofa is a part of the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR), a state situated 320 kilometers (199 miles) southwest of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
From Addis Ababa, MP Kemal Hashi Mohamoud told Al Jazeera that the second landslide occurred “a few minutes” after the first. He remarked, “People are preparing food and shelter for them.”
Pictures from the state-affiliated media outfit Fana Broadcasting Corporate on social media showed hundreds of people digging with their hands in the devastation of turned earth.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that the state was severely damaged by the brief seasonal rains that fell between April and May, resulting in widespread flooding and forced migration.
It said in May that “floods impacted over 19,000 people in several zones, displacing over a thousand and causing damage to livelihoods and infrastructure”.
Landslides have happened in the southern area before; in 2018, two different catastrophes that happened within a week of each other resulted in at least 32 deaths.
While other regions of the nation are experiencing a severe drought, the flooding and landslides have forced traditional herding tribes to look into alternate methods of producing food.
According to UN estimates, the country’s recent climate-related problems have left millions malnourished.
(With inputs from agencies)