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The search and rescue effort for a landslide in southern Ethiopia continued as men dug victims out of the mud with shovels and their bare hands, amid growing fears the death toll could exceed the 229 bodies already found.
Emergency teams were using drones to search for possible survivors in the remote mountainous area of the Gofa region, an official told AFP.
The head of the UN humanitarian office in Ethiopia told the BBC that heavy rains on Sunday night triggered the landslide. A second landslide hit on Monday morning, burying rescue workers, and a third landslide hit on Tuesday.
Paul Handley said there were concerns about the stability of the slopes as the rain continued and 10,000 people in the area needed to be “evacuated to safety”.
He told BBC News Daily that getting heavy earth-moving equipment to the area was difficult, especially because of the poor state of the roads.
Gorfa is part of the Southern Ethiopian state, about 320 km (199 mi) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa.
The government has dispatched a disaster response team to assist with search and recovery efforts.
At least 12 people were rescued and are receiving treatment in hospital.
“The damage is so severe that it is beyond our capacity to deal with it. The area is now uninhabitable,” Marcos Melese, head of the national disaster response agency in the Gorfa region, told Reuters.
Aid agencies have been delivering critical supplies including food, medicine and water to the area.
Firaol Bekele of Ethiopia’s Disaster Risk Management Commission told AFP on Wednesday that the search for survivors was still ongoing and was being supported by drones.
According to Ocha, southern Ethiopia is one of the areas in the country hit by heavy rains and flooding in recent months.
But landslides and floods have a much longer history.
In May 2016, At least 50 people died Heavy rains hit the southern part of the country, causing flooding and landslides.
Ocha said Ethiopia needed $3bn (£2.3bn) to help people affected by last year’s El Nino phenomenon, which brought droughts and floods, as well as conflict, but the operation was “woefully underfunded”.
“We expect these types of emergencies to continue as extreme rainfall continues,” Mr Handley said.
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