ADDIS ABABA: Search teams were still digging at the site of deadly mudslides in southern Ethiopia on Friday, as the death toll rose to 257, according to the UN humanitarian office.
Heavy rain triggered deadly slides on Sunday and Monday in a remote part of the country. The UN humanitarian office, known as OCHA, said in an update Thursday that the death toll could rise to as many as 500, citing local officials.
“More than 15,000 affected people need to be evacuated” from the area, it said.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is expected to visit the remote area on Friday. Mudslides there have been triggered by heavy rainfall in recent days. Abiy said earlier in the week that he was “deeply saddened by this terrible loss.”
Photos from the scene show residents standing over the shrouded bodies of mudslide victims who are being pulled, one by one, from the muddy earth. Diggers have been using hand shovels to pick through the mud.
Many people were buried in the Gofa Zone of Kencho Shacha Gozdi district on Monday, as rescue workers searched the steep terrain for survivors from mudslides the previous day.
Landslides are common during Ethiopia’s rainy reason, which started in July and is expected to last until mid-September.
Deadly mudslides often occur in the wider East African region, from Uganda’s mountainous east to central Kenya’s highlands. In April, at least 45 people were killed in Kenya’s Rift Valley region when flash floods and a landslide swept through houses and cut off a major road.
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Search for people missing after Ethiopia mudslides continues as death toll rises to 257
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Search for people missing after Ethiopia mudslides continues as death toll rises to 257
- Heavy rain triggered deadly slides on Sunday and Monday in a remote part of the country
- Many people were buried in the Gofa Zone of Kencho Shacha Gozdi district on Monday
Taiwan to send team to assess US rare earth deposits
TAIPEI: Taiwan plans to send officials to assess US rare earths deposits with a goal to have such minerals refined on the island, Economy Minister Kung Ming-hsin said on Wednesday.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to secure US supplies of critical minerals after China rattled senior officials and global markets last year by withholding rare earths required by American automakers and other industrial manufacturers.
Trump last week launched a US strategic stockpile of critical minerals, called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from the US Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
While semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan is not formally part of that scheme, it has previously held talks with the United States on how it can help, given Taipei’s concerns about over-reliance on a China-centric supply chain.
China views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military threats.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Kung said the ministry’s Geological Survey and Mining Management Agency would go to the United States to assess rare earths deposits there.
“Specifically, what rare-earth elements they contain and whether they are suitable. In other words, whether those are the rare earths we actually need. So we still need to investigate,” he said.
Given Taiwan does not mine such elements itself, it can instead play a role in refining the materials from other countries, Kung added.
“The technology is not an issue; the next step is scaling up,” he said.
Taiwan consumes 1,500 metric tons of rare earth annually, a figure projected to rise to 2,000 metric tons given economic growth, Kung added.
“Our goal is to expand production capacity to meet half of our demand by then, strengthening the supply chain.
President Donald Trump’s administration has stepped up efforts to secure US supplies of critical minerals after China rattled senior officials and global markets last year by withholding rare earths required by American automakers and other industrial manufacturers.
Trump last week launched a US strategic stockpile of critical minerals, called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from the US Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
While semiconductor powerhouse Taiwan is not formally part of that scheme, it has previously held talks with the United States on how it can help, given Taipei’s concerns about over-reliance on a China-centric supply chain.
China views Taiwan as its own territory and has stepped up its military threats.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei, Kung said the ministry’s Geological Survey and Mining Management Agency would go to the United States to assess rare earths deposits there.
“Specifically, what rare-earth elements they contain and whether they are suitable. In other words, whether those are the rare earths we actually need. So we still need to investigate,” he said.
Given Taiwan does not mine such elements itself, it can instead play a role in refining the materials from other countries, Kung added.
“The technology is not an issue; the next step is scaling up,” he said.
Taiwan consumes 1,500 metric tons of rare earth annually, a figure projected to rise to 2,000 metric tons given economic growth, Kung added.
“Our goal is to expand production capacity to meet half of our demand by then, strengthening the supply chain.
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