The death toll from devastating floods in south-west Ethiopia soared to 364 on Wednesday, police said, bringing to almost 900 the number killed or missing in raging waters nationwide this month.
Authorities said they feared for the worst and were preparing for the possibility that several hundred more may have drowned from weekend flooding in the remote Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s state.
“We are expecting the death toll to increase and we are preparing ourselves for more bodies, maybe even hundreds more,” regional police spokesperson Daniel Gezhegn told Agence France-Presse shortly after the recovery of 170 more bodies.
“With the discovery of 170 bodies today, the death toll has now reached 364,” said Tegaye Mununhe, chief police inspector for Southern Omo region, also warning the figure could rise.
“These are only bodies that have been physically recovered,” he told AFP by phone from the provincial town of Jinka, about 780km south-west of Addis Ababa.
The new deaths nearly doubled the previous toll of 194 from the flooding of the Omo River and its tributaries, which has submerged at least 14 villages, leaving up to 20Â 000 people stranded and without shelter.
Officials said poor weather continued to hamper relief operations, preventing helicopters from landing and forcing emergency workers to take to boats to provide assistance to those in need.
“We are doing all we can,” said local administrator Kadaki Gezhegn. “We have dispatched boats to these areas with food, medicine and tents, [as well as] rescuers, including swimmers and divers, to save lives and help those stranded by water.”
Said Muhei, a journalist who flew over flooded areas in a military helicopter, said uncertainty over the depth of the water kept choppers from landing in many places, but stressed the devastation appeared enormous.
“Flying over the area, one can only see a whole area covered with water,” he said in an interview with state radio. “You cannot see land below and the roofs of houses and tops of trees.
“In areas where we could land, people have lost everything,” he said.
The flooding in the south comes as heavy seasonal rains caused rivers to burst their banks in the east, where 256 people were killed last week and about 250 are still missing, and north, where at least six people have died.
The nationwide total of flood-related dead and missing now stands at 876.
Meanwhile, the search for the 250 people still unaccounted for in the eastern town of Dire Dawa continued apace as United Nations agencies and other relief groups operated in the area, officials said.
More than 10Â 000 people are estimated to have been left homeless by the flooding there, about 500km from Addis Ababa.
Humanitarian groups are struggling to deliver humanitarian supplies to the thousands who are camped in schools and tents, fearing an increased risk of outbreaks of diseases.
And the state-run Ethiopian News Agency said floods from two rivers in the northern Amhara region had killed at least one person, submerging 13 villages and forcing nearly 13Â 000 from their homes in recent days.
Of the 12Â 769 displaced, emergency personnel have rescued 4Â 518 people using boats, it reported, citing a local official in south Gondor, about 560km north of the capital.
Last week, officials said five people in northern Ethiopia — three in Gondor and two in Kemissie — had drowned in floodwaters.
UN chief Kofi Annan expressed sympathy for the losses and said aid groups would continue to assist Ethiopia, home to about 70-million people beset by famine, drought and floods in recent years.
Last year, at least 200 people were killed and more than 260Â 000 displaced when heavy rains pounded the region, flooding rivers and forcing survivors to cling to trees to escape being attacked by crocodiles. — AFP