Ethiopia landslide death toll rises to 229

Using shovels or their bare hands, local residents yesterday searched desperately for survivors after a landslide in a remote area of southern Ethiopia killed at least 229 people, the deadliest such disaster recorded in the nation.
Crowds gathered at the site of the tragedy in an isolated and mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state as some people clawed through mounds of red dirt, according to images posted on social media by the local authority. So far, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have lost their lives after the disaster struck on Monday in the Kencho-Shacha locality in the Gofa Zone, the local Communications Affairs Department said in a statement. Five people had been pulled alive from the mud and were receiving treatment at medical facilities, the government-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corp reported 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 a first landslide following heavy rains.
Dagemawi said that among the victims were the locality’s administrator as well as teachers, health professionals and agricultural professionals.
Images posted by the Gofa authority showed residents carrying bodies of the dead on makeshift stretchers, some wrapped in plastic sheeting.
“Initially, four households were affected by the landslide, and later households in the area were mobilised to save lives,” said Firaol Bekele, early warning director at the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission (EDRMC), told AFP.