Young children and pregnant women were among the victims of the mudslides in the Kencho Shacha Gozdi district of southern Ethiopia, said Dagmawi Ayele, a local administrator. The death toll rose from 55 late Monday to 157 on Tuesday as search operations continued in the area, said Kassahun Abayneh, head of the Gofa Zone communications office. Gofa Zone is the administrative area where the mudslides occurred. "We are still searching for the missing," said Melese, director of the disaster response agency in Gofa Zone. "There are children who are hugging corpses, having lost their entire family, including mother, father, brother and sister, due to the accident," he said.
