Uganda — The death toll from a garbage landslide in the Ugandan capital Kampala has risen to 23, a city official said Monday.
People and livestock were buried in mountains of waste at the landfill in the northern Kampala district of Kiteezi on Saturday after a collapse caused by heavy downpours.
“The latest confirmed dead are 23,” Kampala city authority spokesman Daniel Nuweabine told AFP, adding that the search for survivors was still ongoing.
“Working with other agencies, we are assessing the situation and helping all those in distress,” he added.
🚨Tragedy struck Lusanja-Kiteezi this morning as last night’s heavy rains caused a devastating landslide at the Kiteezi landfill, which processes 1,500 tons of waste daily.
⚠️Homes, animals, and lives have been buried under tons of garbage.
🙏Our hearts are heavy for those… pic.twitter.com/4jjjM8OtN3— VIDEA Uganda (@videaug1) August 10, 2024
The area’s resident commissioner Yasin Ndide had said on Sunday that the victims included five children.
Over the weekend, excavators churned through the huge rubbish mounds as the desperate search for survivors was watched by wailing and weeping residents.
The incident was described as a “national disaster” by city mayor Erias Lukwago, who warned at the weekend that “many, many more could be still buried in the heap as the rescue operation is ongoing”.
He had raised concerns over hazardous risks of overflowing waste from the 36-acre (14-hectare) landfill which was established in 1996 and takes in almost all garbage collected across Kampala.
August 10, 2024#Kampala, Uganda
A landslide at a landfill site in Kiteezi in #Uganda‘s capital city has killed 8 people.
Heavy rains caused parts of the dump to collapse, covering several nearby houses.https://t.co/AkNUB0ml7o#ClimateCatastrophe #ClimateCrisis pic.twitter.com/a5zy75ZVlp— Vikky ger (@diar_esthetic) August 11, 2024
President Yoweri Museveni said he had directed the army’s special forces to help in the search and rescue operation and demanded to know who allowed people to live near such a “potentially hazardous and dangerous heap”.
Several areas in Uganda and other parts of East Africa have been battered by heavy rains recently, including Ethiopia, the second most populous country on the continent.
Devastating mudslides in a remote mountainous area in southern Ethiopia last month killed around 250 people.
In February 2010, mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people.
This is terrible here in uganda at place called lusanja, landslide has buried animals and humans alive, we’re making possible efforts to save some animals pic.twitter.com/vzQ91iw54K
— sengendo joseph3 (@Joseph3Sengendo) August 10, 2024
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Source: AFP
Picture: Pixabay
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