Ethiopia landslides in Gofa kill at least 229, official says

A local official told the BBC that rescuers have so far recovered the bodies of 229 people killed in two landslides in southern Ethiopia.

The landslide occurred between Sunday evening and Monday morning after heavy rains in a remote mountainous area of ​​the Gofa region.

Local authorities said the search for survivors was “ongoing vigorously” but that “the death toll could still rise.”

Footage showed hundreds of people gathering at the scene and others digging through the soil to search for people trapped underground.

In the background, we can see that the hillside has partially collapsed, exposing large areas of red soil.

Goza district chief administrator Dagmawi Ayele told the BBC that the dead included both adults and children, and that 10 people who had been rescued were being treated in hospital.

Heavy rains triggered the landslide on Sunday and police, teachers and residents from nearby villages continued frantic search and rescue efforts on Monday when a second landslide occurred, burying also residents under the mud, Dagmawi said.

“The excavation work is still ongoing,” he told the BBC.

Gofa disaster management chief Marcos Melese said 229 bodies had been recovered so far.

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

Southern Ethiopia has been one of the areas hit particularly hard by heavy rains and floods in recent months, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

But instances of landslides and floods date back much further, to at least May 2016. 50 people died Heavy rains caused floods and landslides across the southern part of the country.

While there are many factors that can cause flooding, warming of the atmosphere due to climate change increases the likelihood of extreme rainfall.

The world has already warmed by about 1.2°C since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments around the world make significant cuts to emissions.