Relatives and residents gather to mourn the death of their beloveds in a collective ceremony close to the scene of a landslide in Kencho Shacha Gozdi on July 25, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

The death toll from landslides in a remote region of southern Ethiopia has risen to 257, the United Nations said on July 25, warning that the number of victims could soar to up to 500.

Rescuers are pressing on with the grim search for bodies and survivors in the stricken locality of Kencho Shacha Gozdi, with crowds of distraught locals digging through a sea of mud often using just their bare hands and shovels.

“The death toll has risen to 257,” as of July 24, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said in statement citing local authorities. “The death toll is expected to rise to up to 500 people.”

OCHA said more than 15,000 people need to be evacuated because of the high risk of further landslides, including at least 1,320 children under the age of five and 5,293 pregnant women or new mothers.

Aid has begun arriving in the isolated, hard-to-reach area, including four trucks of life-saving supplies from the Ethiopian Red Cross Society, it said.

The landslide is the deadliest on record in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation which is often battered by climate-related disasters.

Bodies wrapped in shrouds

Officials have said that most of the victims were buried after they rushed to help after the first landslide, which followed heavy rains Sunday in the area roughly 480km from the capital Addis Ababa — about a 10-hour drive.

In one graphic scene shown in images posted on social media by the local authority, dozens of men surrounded a pit where human limbs were exposed in the mud.

Other villagers carried bodies on makeshift stretchers while in a nearby tent women wailed as they sat near a row of bodies wrapped in shrouds being prepared for burial.

OCHA said 12 people who sustained injuries had been taken to a local hospital, while at least 125 are displaced and sheltering with other local residents.

The number of missing is not known.

Guterres ‘deeply saddened’

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres sent his condolences over the disaster, with his spokesman Stephane Dujarric saying he was “deeply saddened”.

“The United Nations and its partners are working closely with the Government, evaluating the humanitarian situation to determine the extent of the damage and assess the humanitarian needs of the affected population,” Dujarric said.

“U.N. agencies are dispatching food, nutrition, health and other critical supplies to help people affected by the landslides.”

Senait Solomon, head of communications for the South Ethiopia regional government, told AFP on July 24 that the landslide site was sloped and “prone to disasters”, adding that conservation work to protect the area, including tree planting, had been under way at the time of the landslides.

More than 21 million people or about 18% of the population rely on humanitarian aid in Ethiopia as a result of conflict and natural disasters such as flooding and drought.

OCHA said earlier this week that that a similar but lower-scale landslide struck in May in the same area, killing more than 50 people.

Seasonal rains in South Ethiopia state between April and early May had caused flooding, mass displacement and damage to livelihoods and infrastructure, it had said in May.

In 2017, at least 113 people died when a mountain of garbage collapsed in a dump in the outskirts of Addis Ababa.

The deadliest landslide in Africa was in Sierra Leone’s capital in 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.

Humanitarian agencies were scrambling on July 23 to send desperately needed aid to a remote area of southern Ethiopia where a landslide has killed more than 200 people in 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 as residents used shovels or their bare hands to dig through mounds of red dirt in the hunt for victims and survivors, according to images posted by the local authority.

So far, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have died after the disaster struck on Monday in the Kencho-Shacha locality in the Gofa Zone, the local Communications Affairs Department said.

Images published on social media by the Gofa authority showed residents carrying bodies on makeshift stretchers, some wrapped in plastic sheeting.

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 local residents hit by a first landslide following heavy rains.

Dagemawi said that among the victims were the locality’s administrator as well as teachers, health professionals and agricultural professionals.

The UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA said more than 14,000 people had been affected in the hard-to-access area, which is roughly 450 km from the capital Addis Ababa, about a 10-hour drive.

It said support for those affected was mostly being shouldered by the local community but some initial relief items had been sent by federal and regional authorities and local partners, including four trucks of supplies dispatched by the Ethiopian Red Cross for 500 households.

“Agencies are ready to deliver critical supplies, including food, medical items, and water, sanitation and hygiene support,” OCHA said, adding that agencies would be assessing the scale of the impact of the tragedy, including displacement and damage to livelihoods.

Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with around 120 million people, is highly vulnerable to climate disasters including flooding and drought.

Leaders express shock

“I am deeply saddened by this terrible loss,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on X. “Following the accident, the Federal Disaster Prevention Task Force has been deployed to the area and is working to reduce the impact of the disaster.”

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian, sent a message of condolence on X and said a WHO team was being deployed to support immediate health needs.

African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat also posted a statement on X, saying “our hearts and prayers” were with the families of the victims.

‘Landslide engulfed them’

Firaol Bekele, early warning director at the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), told AFP that residents had mobilised to try to save lives after four households were initially affected by a mudslide.

“But they too perished when the landslide engulfed them,” he said, adding that the commission had sent an emergency team to the area, along with food and other aid for the stricken community.

He said there needed to be a “solid assessment and scientific investigation” into the cause of the landslide. “An integrated, study-based solution is needed to address the risk permanently. This may include relocating the population.”

Not the first time

OCHA said July 23 that a similar, but lower-scale landslide had occurred in May in the same area, where more than 50 people had died.

Seasonal rains in South Ethiopia state between April and early May had caused flooding, mass displacement and damage to livelihoods and infrastructure, it had said in May.

“This isn’t the first time this type of disaster has happened,” said an Ethiopian refugee living in Kenya who is from a district located near the site.

“Last year in a similar disaster more than 20 people were killed and before that almost every rainy season people die because of landslides and heavy rains in that area.”

In another incident in 2017, at least 113 people died when a mountain of garbage collapsed in a dump in the outskirts of Addis Ababa.

The deadliest landslide in Africa was in Sierra Leone’s capital in 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.

In this handout photo released by Gofa Zone Government Communication Affairs Department, hundreds of people gather at the site of a mudslide in the Kencho Shacha Gozdi district, Gofa Zone, southern Ethiopia, on July 22, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

At least 157 people were killed in mudslides in a remote part of Ethiopia that has been hit with heavy rainfall, many of them as they tried to rescue survivors of an earlier mudslide, local authorities said on July 23.

Young children and pregnant women were among the victims of the mudslides in the Kencho Shacha Gozdi district of southern Ethiopia, said Dagmawi Ayele, a local administrator.

The death toll rose from 55 late Monday to 157 on Tuesday as search operations continued in the area, said Kassahun Abayneh, head of the Gofa Zone communications office. Gofa Zone is the administrative area where the mudslides occurred.

Most of the victims were buried in a mudslide on Monday morning as rescue workers searched the steep terrain for survivors of another mudslide the previous day.

At least five people have been pulled alive from the mud, Ayele said.

Another official in Gofa, Markos Melese, said many people remained unaccounted for among the group that was covered by mud while trying to rescue others.

“We are still searching for the missing,” said Melese, director of the disaster response agency in Gofa Zone.

“There are children who are hugging corpses, having lost their entire family, including mother, father, brother and sister, due to the accident,” he said.

Landslides are common during Ethiopia’s rainy reason, which started in July and is expected to last until mid-September.

At least 55 people were killed in a landslip in a remote area of southern Ethiopia on July 22, local authorities said, warning that the death toll could rise.

“More than 55 bodies have been found from the landslide,” a statement from the Gofa Zone Communications Affairs Department said, quoting local Chief Dagmawi Zerihun, who warned, “the death toll could yet increase”.

The landslip occurred around 10.00 a.m. (0700 GMT) following heavy rains in the mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state, the Chief said. Women and children were among the casualties, he said, adding the search for survivors was “continuing vigorously”.

Also Read:Ethiopia: its past and current challenges

Images shared on Facebook by the state-affiliated media outlet Fana Broadcasting Corporate showed hundreds of people near a devastating scene of tumbled red soil.

The South Ethiopia regional state has been battered by the short seasonal rains between April and early May that have caused flooding and mass displacement, according to the UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA.