The death toll from two landslides in southern Ethiopia has risen to 229 as rescue efforts continue to locate survivors and victims.
The first landslide, triggered by heavy rains in the remote Gofa Zone, occurred on Monday. It was quickly followed by a second landslide that buried rescuers who had gathered to assist, state officials reported on Tuesday.
Local residents worked tirelessly on Tuesday, using shovels and their hands to search for survivors in what has become the deadliest landslide in Ethiopia’s history. Images shared by local authorities on social media showed crowds at the disaster site in this isolated and mountainous region of South Ethiopia.
According to the local Communications Affairs Department, the confirmed casualties include 148 men and 81 women from the Kencho-Shacha locality in Gofa Zone. This toll was reported on Monday.
State-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation reported that five individuals had been rescued alive and were receiving medical care in nearby facilities. Dagemawi Ayele, a local administrator, noted that many victims were caught while attempting to aid residents affected by the initial landslide that struck a dwelling.
Heartbreaking images shared online by Gofa authorities showed residents carrying bodies on makeshift stretchers, some covered in plastic sheets.
Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Africa with approximately 120 million people, is highly susceptible to climate-related disasters such as flooding and drought.
Solidarity
African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed solidarity with the victims’ families. “Our hearts and prayers are with the families of the victims. We stand in strong solidarity with the people and government of Ethiopia as rescue efforts continue to find the missing and assist the displaced,” he said on X.
Gofa is located in the South Ethiopia regional state, roughly 450 kilometers (270 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa, though the distance takes around 10 hours to drive.
“The area of the disaster is rural, remote, and very mountainous,” said an Ethiopian refugee living in Kenya who is from a district near the disaster site. “The soil in that area isn’t strong, so when heavy rains and landslides happen, the soil immediately runs down to the ground below,” he told AFP in Nairobi.
The South Ethiopian state was battered by seasonal rains between April and early May, causing flooding and mass displacement, according to the UN’s humanitarian response agency, OCHA. In May, floods affected more than 19,000 people in several zones, displacing over 1,000 and causing damage to livelihoods and infrastructure.
In 2016, 41 people were killed in a landslide following heavy rains in Wolaita, also in South Ethiopia. In 2017, at least 113 people died when a mountain of garbage collapsed in a dump on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
The deadliest landslide in Africa occurred in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, in August 2017, when 1,141 people perished. Mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people in February 2010.
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