A major landslide in the North Shewa Zone of Ethiopia has killed at least 14 pilgrims gathered at a monastery.
On 3 August 2026, a significant landslide occurred at the Debre Metmik Tsadkane Mariam Monastery (often known as Tsadkane Mariam Monastery) in the North Shewa Zone of Ethiopia. There are 14 confirmed fatalities from this landslide, with an unknown number of people reported to be missing. Seven people were injured.
The best news report that I can find at the moment is on the TRT Afrika website (note that the images are from a different event). Wikipedia lists the Debre Metmik Tsadkane Mariam Monastery as being located at [9.947778, 39.64].
The monastery is built on a steep slope – this is a Google Earth image of the site:-
The University of Toronto Scarborough has a good site describing the monastery:-
“The site … includes a rock-hewn church within a walled courtyard and a large prayer chamber, carved to the north west of the courtyard. … During fasting periods and religious holidays, hundreds of people live onsite in makeshift shelters.“
“The prayer chamber is carved into a northeast cliff face, immediately to the right of the of the church. The path, which descends from above, widens in front of the prayer chamber. The slope below is terraced and the faithful occupy any available space.”
The report indicates that the landslide involved “massive rocks” that impacted upon “hundreds of worshippers [who] had gathered for a holy water cleansing ritual”.
Intriguingly, some news reports hint at a tremor triggering the landslide, but the TRT Afrika report blames heavy rainfall.
Whilst it is a little challenging to speculate on what happened at this site, there are images that suggest that oversteepening of slopes might be an issue at the Debre Metmik Tsadkane Mariam Monastery. The image below, for example, is from the University of Toronto site. The monastery is located at the top of slope:-
It is easy to imagine the failure of a such a cut slope, with the debris impacting people gathered or camping on the terraces below.
Sadly, in most landslides of this type in such locations, there is a paucity of follow-up reporting, so there is a high chance that we’ll never know the detail of this failure.
Text © 2026. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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