MOCOA, Colombia, (MILLAT ONLINE/APP/AFP) – The Colombian
government on Monday declared a state of economic emergency in the town of Mocoa in southern Colombia, after mudslides left more than 270 people dead, including 43 children.
“We have the toll of the people who have unfortunately died,” said
President Juan Manuel Santos, as he revisited the scene of Friday’s disaster.
“The latest is 273 people died and 262 are injured,” he said. Earlier he said that at least 43 children were among the dead.
Santos was to spend the night at a nearby military base and on Tuesday would continue coordinating the emergency response.
The president said reconstruction would begin, dismissing risks of further mudslides, but he warned that the country faces rainy weather until June.
Santos has flown into the disaster zone for three straight days to oversee the relief effort. He declared an economic emergency Monday to free up relief funds, amplifying the public health and safety emergency he had already declared.
The mudslides occurred Friday after heavy rains caused three rivers to overflow, spewing earth, rocks and tree debris over the area.
Most of the hardest-hit neighborhoods are poor and populated with people uprooted during Colombia’s five-decade-long civil war.
Mocoa was home to 70,000 people, according to Sorrel Aroca, the governor of Putumayo department. The Red Cross estimated about 45,000 people in Mocoa were affected by the mudslides.
Hopes of finding survivors were fading Monday as some 200 people remained missing.
Rescuers clawed through mud and timber as relatives desperately sought loved ones.
Survivors told of scrambling onto roofs or hanging onto trees as a sea of mud, boulders and debris engulfed Mocoa late Friday.
Some watched as their children and relatives were swept away.