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At least 146 people have died in a landslide in a remote area of Ethiopia due to heavy rains. Local administrator Dagmawy Ayele said that most of the victims of the landslide in Kencho Shacha Gojadi district of southern Ethiopia include young children and pregnant women. 50 women are among the dead.
It is believed that two incidents occurred on Sunday evening and Monday morning after heavy rains in a remote mountainous area of the Gofa region. Local officials said that the search for survivors is “vigorously ongoing”, but “the death toll may increase further.”
Hundreds of people gathered at the site after the accident and others are seen digging the soil in search of people trapped below. In the released video, a hill can be seen partially collapsing and a large piece of red soil is exposed.
Deaths due to landslide
Meskir Mitku, the general administrator of the Gofa region, said that the casualties included women, children and police officers. “Heavy rain fell on Sunday night and landslides have killed some people,” said Kassahun Abayneh, a government spokesman for the Goffa district.
Goffa is part of a state known as Southern Ethiopia, located about 320 km (199 miles) southwest of the capital Addis Ababa, according to media reports.
Floods and landslides wreak havoc
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), southern Ethiopia is among the areas of the country that have been particularly affected by heavy rains and floods in recent months, but there have already been cases of landslides and flooding.
In May 2016, at least 50 people were killed in floods and landslides following heavy rains in the southern part of the country. Many factors are believed to be responsible for the floods, but excessive rainfall due to climate change is one of the causes.
In May this year, floods affected more than 19,000 people in several areas. More than a thousand people were displaced. At the same time, in the southern region, at least 32 people were killed after two separate landslides within a week in 2018.
