Locals dig through mud by hand in desperate search for the missing after more than 257 people were killed in the disaster.
Gofa Zone, Ethiopia – For days, retired teacher Meaza Tadelu has been holding on to hope that his missing wife may still be alive.
Barefoot and distraught, the frail 66-year-old looked on as younger volunteers dug through mud and earth in search of survivors in his village in Ethiopia’s Gofa Zone.
“She left home in search of household goods in the nearby market and I suspect she was trapped by the mudslide,” Tadelu, a local from the village of Daly, told Al Jazeera, his clothes and bony hands stained with mud.
The first disaster struck last Sunday, after days of torrential rains in the mountainous southern region triggered a deadly landslide that swept away houses and people.
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