Ethiopia: Landslides in Gofa kill at least 229, official says

Rescue teams have so far recovered the bodies of 229 people killed in two landslides in southern Ethiopia, a local official told the BBC.

The landslides occurred Sunday evening and Monday morning, after heavy rains in a remote mountainous area in the Juffa region.

Local authorities said the search for survivors was “continuing with intensity” but that “the death toll could rise”.

The footage showed hundreds of people gathered at the scene and others digging through the dirt looking for people trapped underground.

In the background, a partially collapsed hillside can be seen, revealing a large area of ​​red earth.

The chief administrator of Gwoza, Dagmawi Ayele, told the BBC that the dead included adults and children, while 10 people were rescued alive and were receiving treatment in hospital.

Heavy rains triggered a landslide on Sunday, and as police, teachers and residents from nearby villages frantically continued search and rescue operations on Monday, a second landslide struck, burying them under the mud as well, Dagmawi said.

“We are still digging,” he told the BBC.

Markus Meles, head of disaster management in Gofa, said 229 bodies have been recovered so far.

Gofa is part of the state known as Southern Ethiopia, and is located about 320 kilometres (199 miles) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Southern Ethiopia is among the areas of the country that have been hit by particularly heavy rains and flooding in recent months, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

But landslides and floods have been reported before. In May 2016, at least 50 people were killed in floods and landslides following heavy rains in the south of the country.

There are many factors that contribute to flooding, but warmer weather due to climate change makes heavy rainfall more likely.

The world has already warmed by about 1.2 degrees Celsius since the start of the industrial era, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments around the world make sharp cuts in emissions.