On Wednesday rescuers aided by drones were continuing a search for possible survivors of devastating landslides in an isolated area of southern Ethiopia that have claimed the lives of at least 229 people.
Humanitarian agencies were also scrambling to rush emergency relief aid to the stricken community after the deadliest such incident recorded in Ethiopia, a country highly vulnerable to climate-related disasters.
Local residents have been using shovels and their bare hands to dig through the vast mounds of mud to hunt for victims and survivors of Monday’s tragedy in Kencho, a hard-to-access locality hundreds of kilometres from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.
As of now, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have died after the disaster struck in the remote and mountainous area, according to the Gofa Zone Communications Affairs Department, which covers the Kencho locality, 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, early warning director at the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC) said.
‘The government is addressing urgent needs for food, water, medicine and shelter’, he said. Officials said that most of the victims were buried when they rushed to help other residents hit by the first landslide following heavy rains on Sunday.
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