Ethiopia landslide death toll rises to 257, could reach up to 500 – UN

Residents and volunteers leave for the night after digging in the mud in search for survivors and bodies at the scene of a landslide in Gofa on July 24, 2024. In tears, hugging each other, residents of Kencho Shacha Gozdi descend Wednesday evening, after a third day of desperate excavations, the hill where a landslide engulfed their loved ones in this rural and isolated area of southern Ethiopia. The landslide, the deadliest so far publicly reported in Ethiopia, the second most populous country on the African continent (120 million inhabitants), left at least 229 dead. (Photo by Michele Spatari / Agence France-Presse)

ETHIOPIA — The death toll from a devastating landslide in southern Ethiopia has risen to 257, the United Nations said Thursday, warning it could increase to up to 500.

The disaster occurred on Monday following heavy rains in a tiny community in a mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state. The last toll, given by the local authority on Tuesday, was 229.

“The death toll has risen to 257,” as of July 24, the UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA said in statement on Thursday, citing local authorities.

“The death toll is expected to rise to up to 500 people,” it said.

READ: Ethiopia: Devastating landslide kills 229

At the scene in Kencho Shacha Gozdi, hundreds of people combed through the sodden red mud as they searched for survivors of the deadliest landslide recorded in Africa’s second most populous country.

“More than 15,000 affected people need to be evacuated,” OCHA said, including at least 1,320 children, as well as 5,293 pregnant women and new mothers.

South Ethiopia has been battered by the short seasonal rains between April and early May that have caused flooding and mass displacement, according to OCHA.