ADDIS ABABA: Local residents were desperately searching for survivors on Tuesday after a landslide in a remote area of southern Ethiopia killed 229 people, the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa nation. The government-owned Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) said 229 people had died in the landslide in the Geze-Gofa district in an isolated mountainous region in the South Ethiopia regional state. Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with around 120 million people, is highly vulnerable to climate disasters including flooding and drought. In 2016, 41 people were killed in a landslide following heavy rains in Wolaita, also in South Ethiopia. The deadliest landslide in Africa was in Sierra Leone’s capital in Freetown in August 2017 when 1,141 people perished.

Source: Ethiopian News July 23, 2024 14:17 UTC