Landslide at landfill in Uganda’s capital kills 17 individuals as rescuers hunt survivors

Reuters
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The loss of life toll from a landslide at an unlimited rubbish dump in Uganda’s capital Kampala has risen to 17, a Crimson Cross official mentioned on Sunday, as rescue staff continued to dig for survivors.

After torrential rain in latest weeks an enormous mound of rubbish on the metropolis’s solely landfill website collapsed late on Friday, crushing and burying houses on the sting of the positioning as residents slept.

4 extra our bodies had been retrieved on Sunday, bringing the entire to 17, Irene Nakasita, spokesperson for Uganda Crimson Cross mentioned.

Earlier on Sunday, police spokesperson Patrick Onyango had put the loss of life toll at 13, up from eight that the Kampala Capital Metropolis Authority had reported on Saturday.

President Yoweri Museveni mentioned in an announcement he had directed the prime minister to coordinate the removing of all these residing close to the rubbish dump.

The federal government has additionally began investigations into the landslide’s trigger and can take motion in opposition to any officers discovered to have been negligent, the Inspectorate of Authorities mentioned on X.

A minimum of 14 individuals have been rescued to this point, Onyango mentioned, including that extra may nonetheless be trapped however the quantity was unknown.

Tents have been arrange close by for these displaced by the landslide, the Crimson Cross mentioned.

The landfill website, often called Kiteezi, has served as Kampala’s sole rubbish dump for many years and had become a giant hill.

Residents have lengthy complained of hazardous waste polluting the surroundings and posing a hazard to residents.

Efforts by town authority to obtain a brand new landfill website have dragged on for years.

There have been comparable tragedies elsewhere in Africa from poorly managed mountains of municipal rubbish.

In 2017 no less than 115 individuals had been killed in Ethiopia, crushed by a rubbish landslide in Addis Ababa. In Mozambique, no less than 17 individuals died in an analogous 2018 catastrophe in Maputo.