At least 229 people have died in mudslides in southern Ethiopia's Gofa Zone, authorities said Tuesday. "The death toll surged after the people who came to rescue also got trapped," said Gofa district administrator Misikir Mitiku. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is Ethiopian, said his agency also has dispatched a team to the site. "They had no clue that the land they were standing on was about to swallow them," he told the Times. "There are children who are hugging corpses, having lost their entire family, including mother, father, brother and sister," Markos Melese, director of the disaster response agency in Gofa Zone, told The Associated Press.

Source: Ethiopian News July 24, 2024 00:49 UTC