Thirteen killed in Ivory Coast landslip, many missing

Thirteen people died Thursday while others including children were missing and feared dead in a mudslide which flattened homes and suspended rail tracks in a suburb of Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan.

The landslide following torrential rains left a scene of devastation, with objects of daily life visible among the remains of blue walls and sections of tin roofs, a teddy bear here, a pink T-shirt there.

Residents said several children were dead or missing in the teeming suburb of Anyama, north of the coastal city.

Landslides and floods are common in Abidjan, the economic capital of the world’s top cocoa producer, during the rainy season, wreaking havoc on shantytowns built into eroding hillsides in the undulating seaside city.

“The provisional death toll is 13 and searches are continuing,” Abidjan’s prefect Vincent Toh Bi said without specifying whether the figure included children.

He added that “20 houses were swept away.”

About 10 people were hospitalised, locals said.

“I have lost my three-year-old son and I am looking for his body,” Aboubacar Dagnon said, after his wife’s home was flattened.

He added that a drainage tunnel had been clogged up for months, and a reservoir of water had formed. (AFP)