Hundreds Dead in Ethiopian Landslide

Bodies continued to be recovered in Ethiopia's Gofa zone nearly 10 days after a landslide buried and killed hundreds of people.

Families surrounding a wrapped unanimated body were seen crying while other villagers continued to look for loved ones.

A week after the tragedy, the wails of mourning women and crying children continued as mostly local men frantically excavated, searching for hundreds of loved ones who were swept away and buried beneath mud. Authorities said search operations were continuing through the weekend.

The mountainous region has made it nearly impossible for heavy machinery to reach the area. So dozens of people have been digging away throughout the day, excavating by hand, searching for the missing with the help of spades and pickaxes.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the death toll is expected to rise to up to 500 people.

At least 257 people died last week when heavy rains triggered a landslide, burying people in the Gofa Zone of southern Ethiopia, and a second one engulfed those engaged in rescue efforts.

Soon after, locals and police officers arrived to help. But another landslide swept even more people, including rescuers, away.

On a field perched atop a hill, which is typically used to host religious and national celebrations, people gathered to attend a mass funeral for the dead.

The ceremony was quickly organized by the local government and attended by hundreds of villagers, including those who had brought dead bodies on donkeys and carts to see them buried.

Ethiopian authorities say at least 257 people perished in the disaster, a death toll the United Nations’s humanitarian agency, OCHA, expects to more or less double to 500.

According to OCHA, more landslides are feared, and some 15,500 people in the area are at risk of being affected, including at least 1,320 children under the age of five and 5,293 pregnant and lactating women.