Deadly landslides in southern Ethiopia leave at least 102 dead

# Deadly landslides in southern Ethiopia leave at least 102 dead

Event date: 2026-03-12. Landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain in southern Ethiopia have killed at least 102 people in the Gamo Zone, with recovery teams still searching through mud and debris and local officials warning that the toll could change again as the work continues.

The supplied evidence shows a rapidly worsening disaster. An earlier AP report placed the death toll at least 50 with 125 missing after landslides hit three districts in the Gamo Zone. A later Ethiopia Observer report put the death toll at 102, saying recovery teams had retrieved 52 bodies and that the Gamo Zone communications office now believed 102 people had died. Taken together, the reports show the scale of the emergency rose sharply over a short period as rescuers continued to reach buried areas.

The AP account identified the affected districts as Gacho Baba, Kamba and Bonke and said one person had been pulled alive from the mud during rescue efforts. It also quoted regional officials urging people in high-risk areas to move to higher ground while rains continued. The later local report added that the worst of the landslides struck Mazo Doysa kebele in Gacho Baba woreda, where a large share of the bodies had been recovered.

This is the kind of disaster where the numbers matter, but the human reality matters more. Families were reported to have lost multiple members in the same incident, and rescuers were still working through thick mud and debris. The AP excerpt said many of the dead were found buried in the mud and that the state of the disaster made it impossible to say immediately how many households were affected. The Ethiopia Observer report added that in some families, two, three, four or even five members had died.

The event is also part of a pattern. Southern Ethiopia has experienced deadly landslides before, and the AP report notes that more than 229 people were killed by a landslide in the neighboring Geze Gofa Zone in July 2024. That history gives context to the warnings from officials in the current crisis: these are not isolated weather events, but recurring hazards in a region where heavy rainfall can turn steep ground into a lethal trap.

The evidence does not support speculation about the exact trigger beyond heavy rain. It does, however, show that the disaster was not confined to one village or one slope. The death toll spread across multiple woredas in the Gamo Zone, which means the emergency response is likely to remain stretched as teams move from one burial site to the next.

The most important verified facts are straightforward. Heavy rain triggered landslides in southern Ethiopia. At least 102 people were dead by the time of the later report. One person was rescued alive in an earlier stage of the response. Dozens more were missing when AP reported from the scene. Local and regional officials were calling for caution as the rains continued.

With that evidence, the picture is one of a disaster still unfolding rather than one already counted and contained. The death toll is high, the missing count remains serious, and rescue crews are still facing unstable ground that could complicate the search further.