UN continues providing aid supplies to landslide-hit Ethiopia

 July 27 (IANS) Humanitarians said that the United Nations and its partners are continuing to support the Ethiopian government in responding to the devastating landslides in the south of the country. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said the aid supplies include shelter, nutrition, and water sanitation and hygiene assistance, Xinhua news agency reported. OCHA said it is leading a team of UN agencies on the ground to assess the impact of the landslides, including the scale of displacement. An estimated 600 people have been displaced so far. Search-and-rescue teams are still looking for missing people, the office said. "It is extremely challenging to access affected areas, given the difficult terrain and heavy rain." Meanwhile, the Ethiopian government is working to evacuate more than 5,600 of the most vulnerable people, including more than 1,300 children and upwards of 400 pregnant and breastfeeding women, to safer areas, OCHA said. Deadly landslides hit a remote village in southern Ethiopia on Sunday and Monday, leaving at least 257 dead. Ethiopia has declared a three-day national mourning for the dead, starting from Saturday. --IANS int/rs/svn