Deadly landslide hits Ethiopia mountain monastery during prayer service

Funerals have been held for some of the 14 people killed in a landslide that hit a mountain monastery hosting an overnight prayer session in Ethiopia's northern Amhara region.

Rescue efforts for others feared trapped in the debris after a hillside above the Orthodox Church monastery collapsed in the early hours of Monday morning have now been halted.

The monastery includes a prayer chamber carved into the mountainside, where the worshippers had gathered for the special prayer service.

"The land above the cave… slid after the heavy rain that lasted throughout the night," Dagnachew Azbite, a senior local official, told the BBC.

Seven people had been found injured, five of them seriously, he said.

The prayer service being held at the Tsadqane Debre Mitmaq St Mary Monastery included a holy water cleansing ritual that is popular among Orthodox Christians seeking spiritual healing for chronic illnesses.

"Many of those who died had gathered to receive the holy water," Megabe Hadis Neka Tibeb Ababu, the diocese's general manager, told the Associated Press news agency.

Eleven of those who died have been buried at the monastery, while the bodies of the others have been returned to their hometowns for burial, according to Megabe.

Identifying some of the victims remained a challenge, he said.

Emergency teams, security personnel, healthcare workers and nearby residents had been among those carrying out search and rescue operations at the site, the local authorities said.

Archbishop Abune Klementos, the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church's North Shewa Diocese, travelled to the monastery to lead funeral prayers for those killed, pray for the injured and offer comfort to grieving families, the authorities added.

Landslides are a recurring hazard in Ethiopia during the country's main rainy season, which typically runs from June to August.

In March, more than 100 people were killed in floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains in the southern Gamo Zone area .

More than 229 people, including rescuers, were killed by a landslide in the neighbouring Geze Gofa Zone in July 2024, which was one of the country's deadliest weather-related disasters in recent years.

Over the past two decades, numerous studies have documented a rise in both extreme wet spells and prolonged dry periods across East Africa , external .

Scientists have repeatedly cautioned that human-driven climate change is making severe weather events - such as intense, long-lasting downpours - more frequent and more severe.

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