Scramble to send aid after Ethiopia landslide kills over 200

ADDIS ABABA - Humanitarian agencies were scrambling to send desperately needed aid to a remote area of southern Ethiopia where a landslide has killed more than 200 people in the deadliest such disaster recorded in the Horn of Africa nation.

Crowds gathered at the site of the tragedy in an isolated and mountainous area of South Ethiopia regional state as residents used shovels or their bare hands to dig through mounds of red dirt in the hunt for victims and survivors, according to images posted by the local authority.

So far, 148 men and 81 women are confirmed to have died after the disaster struck on Monday in the Kencho-Shacha locality in the Gofa Zone, the local Communications Affairs Department said.

Images published on social media by the Gofa authority showed residents carrying bodies on makeshift stretchers, some wrapped in plastic sheeting.

Five people had been pulled alive from the mud and were receiving treatment at medical facilities, the government-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation reported earlier.

It quoted local administrator Dagemawi Ayele as saying that most of the victims were buried after they went to help local residents hit by a first landslide following heavy rains.

Dagemawi said that among the victims were the locality's administrator as well as teachers, health professionals and agricultural professionals.

The UN's humanitarian response agency OCHA said more than 14,000 people had been affected in the hard-to-access area, which is roughly 450 kilometres (270 miles) from the capital Addis Ababa, about a 10-hour drive.

It said support for those affected was mostly being shouldered by the local community but some initial relief items had been sent by federal and regional authorities and local partners, including four trucks of supplies dispatched by the Ethiopian Red Cross for 500 households.

"Agencies are ready to deliver critical supplies, including food, medical items, and water, sanitation and hygiene support," OCHA said, adding that agencies would be assessing the scale of the impact of the tragedy, including displacement and damage to livelihoods.

Ethiopia, the second most populous country in Africa with around 120 million people, is highly vulnerable to climate disasters including flooding and drought.