Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA (EI): Landslide triggered by heavy rains has killed 13 people in southern Ethiopia’s Wolaita zone, local officials have said.
The deadly landslide incident, triggered by heavy rains, occurred in the Kawo Koisha district of Wolaita area in southern Ethiopia’s. The landslide killed 13 people, including children, and displaced hundreds of others, Wolaita Zone Administration disclosed in a statement Tuesday.
Noting ongoing search operations to recover unaccounted local community members that were reportedly affected by the landslide, local officials said hundreds of people have been evacuated from the area as part of precautionary measures.
The deadly landslide occurred in the midst of a rainy season, which is expected to last until mid-September.
As the rainy season intensifies across Ethiopia, the country has in recent weeks experienced deadly deadly landslide incidents in different parts of the country triggered by heavy rains.
The most recent one was a deadly landslide incident that hit Geze Gofa District in southern Ethiopia on July 13 and 14 that has claimed the lives of at least 257, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA).
Data from the UNOCHA show that the death toll from the successive landslide incidents that hit Geze Gofa District could reach up to 500 as many were yet to be unaccounted for days after the tragic incident.
(PHOTO from Wolaita Zone Administration’s Facebook Page shows the landslide incident area. The deadly landslide killed 13 people in the Kawo Koisha district in the Wolaita zone, southern Ethiopia, according to local authorities.)
