Humanitarian organizations tried on July 23 to send much-needed aid to a remote area of southern Ethiopia, where a landslide has killed more than 200 people in the Horn of Africa’s deadliest disaster ever.
Crowds gathered at the scene of the tragedy in an isolated and mountainous area of the southern Ethiopia regional state, as residents used shovels or their bare hands to dig through mounds of red earth in the hunt for victims and survivors, according to footage posted by the local government.
This grab, made from handout images released on July 22, 2024, by the Gofa Zone Communications Department, shows people searching for victims at the bottom of a landslide that occurred in Geze-Gofa district. | Photo credit: AFP
So far, 148 men and 81 women have been confirmed dead after the disaster struck Monday in Kencho-Shacha town in Gofa zone, the local Communications Department said.
Images published by the Gofa authority on social media show residents carrying bodies on makeshift stretchers, some wrapped in plastic sheeting.
Five people had been pulled alive from the mud and were being treated at medical facilities, the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation said 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 an initial landslide after heavy rains.
Dagemawi said the victims included local administrators as well as teachers, health workers and agricultural professionals.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said more than 14,000 people have been affected in the difficult-to-access area, which is about 450km from the capital Addis Ababa, about 10 hours’ drive.
It said support for those affected has been largely provided by the local community, but some first aid supplies have been sent by federal and regional authorities and local partners, including four trucks of supplies sent by the Ethiopian Red Cross to 500 households.
“Agencies stand ready to deliver essential supplies, including food, medical supplies and water, sanitation and hygiene support,” OCHA said, adding that agencies would assess the scale of the tragedy’s impact, including displacement and damage to the livelihood.
Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with about 120 million people, is highly vulnerable to climate disasters, including floods 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 was deployed to the area and is working to reduce the impact of the disaster.”
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, an Ethiopian man, sent a condolence message to X and said a WHO team was being deployed to support immediate health needs.
Moussa Faki Mahamat, head of the African Union Commission, also posted a statement on X, saying “our hearts and prayers” were with the families of the victims.
‘A landslide has engulfed them’
Firaol Bekele, early warning director at the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), said AFP that residents had mobilized to save lives after four households were initially hit by a mudslide.
“But they too died when the landslide engulfed them,” he said, adding that the committee had sent an emergency team to the area, along with food and other aid for the affected community.
He said a “solid assessment and scientific investigation” was needed into the cause of the landslide. “An integrated, research-based solution is needed to permanently address the risk. This could include population relocation.”
Not the first time
OCHA said on July 23 that a similar but smaller-scale landslide had occurred in the same area in May, killing more than 50 people.
Seasonal rains in southern Ethiopia state between April and early May had caused flooding, mass displacement and damage to livelihoods and infrastructure, it said in May.
“This is not the first time this kind of disaster has happened,” said an Ethiopian refugee living in Kenya from a district near the site.
“Last year, a similar disaster killed more than 20 people and before that, people died almost every rainy season due to landslides and heavy rains in that area.”
In another incident in 2017, at least 113 people were killed when a mountain of waste collapsed at a landfill on the outskirts of Addis Ababa.
The deadliest landslide in Africa occurred in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in August 2017, when 1,141 people were killed.
More than 350 people were killed in mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda in February 2010.
