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At least 21 people were killed and more than 30 are missing after landslides hit Kenya’s western Rift Valley region on Saturday.
Heavy rains have battered the region for several days during the country’s short rainy season. More than 1,000 homes have been destroyed by a landslide in a hilly area in Chesongochi, Elgeyo-Marakwet County, in western Kenya.
Several roads were cut off and the government airlifted 30 seriously injured survivors to a hospital in nearby Eldoret City.
Local residents said they heard a deafening sound and fled their homes in panic, fleeing in different directions.
Despite continued heavy rain, rescue efforts continued into Saturday as disaster authorities searched for missing people among the rubble of collapsed houses.
The hilly area of Chaesongochchi is prone to landslides, which killed dozens of people in separate incidents in 2010 and 2012. In 2020, a shopping center was washed away by severe flooding.
The country’s Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said the government was working to identify alternative housing areas for those affected.
Additional sources of information • AP