Dozens dead in Ethiopia landslides

At least 50 people have been killed in landslides in southern Ethiopia, local officials say.

Two incidents reportedly occurred on Sunday evening and Monday morning, after heavy rains in a remote mountainous area of ​​the Gofa zone.

Local authorities said the search for survivors was “actively” continuing but that the “death toll could rise further”.

Footage showed hundreds of people gathered at the scene and others digging into the earth to search for people trapped below.

In the background, a partially collapsed hill can be seen and a large expanse of red earth has been exposed.

Meskir Mitku, the chief administrator of Gofa zone, said women, children and police officers were among the victims.

“There was heavy rain yesterday (Sunday) night and some people died due to a landslide,” said Kassahun Abayneh, government spokesman for Gofa district.

“In the morning (Monday), residents, including police, gathered at the site to rescue those affected by the first landslide. It was then that a second landslide occurred around 10:00 am (0700 GMT) today and those who had gathered there died,” he said, according to AFP.

Gofa is part of the state known as Southern Ethiopia, located about 320 km (199 miles) southwest of the capital, Addis Ababa.

Southern Ethiopia is among the regions of the country that have been particularly affected by particularly heavy rains and flooding in recent months, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

But landslides and floods go back much further than that. In May 2016, at least 50 people died in floods and landslides following heavy rains in the south of the country.

Many factors contribute to flooding, but the warming of the atmosphere caused by climate change makes extreme rainfall more likely.

The planet has already warmed by about 1.2°C since the start of the industrial era, and temperatures will continue to rise unless governments around the world drastically cut their emissions.