Addis Ababa: Rescuers using drones continued a desperate search on Wednesday for possible survivors of devastating landslides in an isolated region of southern Ethiopia that have killed at least 229 people.
Aid agencies also scrambled to speed up emergency aid to the affected community after the deadliest such incident on record in Ethiopia, a country highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters.
Local residents use shovels and bare hands to dig through huge piles of mud to search for victims and survivors of Monday’s tragedy in Kencho, a hard-to-reach area hundreds of kilometers from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
So far, 148 men and 81 women have been confirmed dead following the disaster in the remote and mountainous area, the Gofa Zone Communications Department, which covers the Kencho site, said on Tuesday.
“The search for survivors is ongoing and is currently being supported by drones operated by experts from the Information Network Security Administration (INSA),” Firaol Bekele, director of early warning at Ethiopia’s Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), told AFP.
“The government is addressing the urgent needs of food, water, medicine and shelter,” he said.
The government-run Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation reported on Tuesday that five people had been pulled alive from the mud and were being treated at medical facilities.
The UN humanitarian aid agency OCHA said more than 14,000 people had been affected in the hard-to-reach area, which is roughly 450 kilometers (270 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa, about a 10-hour drive.
A UN source told AFP that about 125 people had been displaced and that 14,000, including 5,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women and 1,300 children, had to be quickly evacuated due to the risk of another landslide.
Millions of people in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, are dependent on humanitarian aid due to conflict and natural disasters such as floods and drought.
“After the accident, the Federal Disaster Prevention Task Force was deployed to the area to work to reduce the effects of the disaster.”
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian, sent his condolences to Xu and said a WHO team was deployed to support immediate health needs.
African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat also released a statement on X, saying “our hearts and prayers” were with the families of the victims.
“But they too perished when the landslide swallowed them,” he said.
He said a “solid assessment and scientific investigation” was needed into the cause of the landslide, which officials said was in an area prone to such disasters.
“An integrated, study-based solution is needed to permanently address the risk. This may include population relocation.”
OCHA said on Tuesday that a similar but smaller landslide occurred in the same area in May, killing more than 50 people.
Seasonal rains in Southern Ethiopia state between April and early May caused flooding, mass displacement and damage to livelihoods and infrastructure, it said in May.
In another incident in 2017, at least 113 people died when a mountain of garbage collapsed at a landfill on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
The deadliest landslide in Africa was in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, in August 2017, when 1,141 people died.
