The death toll from a landslide at a vast garbage dump in Uganda\u2019s capital Kampala has risen to 17, a Red Cross official said on Sunday, as rescue workers continued to dig for survivors. <\/p>\n
After torrential rain in recent weeks a huge mound of garbage at the city\u2019s only landfill site collapsed late on Friday, crushing and burying homes on the edge of the site as residents slept. <\/p>\n
Four more bodies were retrieved on Sunday, bringing the total to 17, Irene Nakasita, spokesperson for Uganda Red Cross said. <\/p>\n
Earlier on Sunday, police spokesperson Patrick Onyango had put the death toll at 13, up from eight that the Kampala Capital City Authority had reported on Saturday. <\/p>\n
President Yoweri Museveni said in a statement he had directed the prime minister to coordinate the removal of all those living near the garbage dump. <\/p>\n
The government has also started investigations into the landslide\u2019s cause and will take action against any officials found to have been negligent, the Inspectorate of Government said on X. <\/p>\n
At least 14 people have been rescued so far, Onyango said, adding that more could still be trapped but the number was unknown. <\/p>\n
Tents have been set up nearby for those displaced by the landslide, the Red Cross said. <\/p>\n
The landfill site, known as Kiteezi, has served as Kampala\u2019s sole garbage dump for decades and had turned into a big hill. <\/p>\n
Residents have long complained of hazardous waste polluting the environment and posing a danger to residents. <\/p>\n
Efforts by the city authority to procure a new landfill site have dragged on for years. <\/p>\n
There have been similar tragedies elsewhere in Africa from poorly managed mountains of municipal garbage. <\/p>\n
In 2017 at least 115 people were killed in Ethiopia, crushed by a garbage landslide in Addis Ababa. In Mozambique, at least 17 people died in a similar 2018 disaster in Maputo. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The death toll from a landslide at a vast garbage dump in Uganda\u2019s capital Kampala has risen to 17, a Red Cross official said on Sunday, as rescue workers continued to dig for survivors. After torrential rain in recent weeks a huge mound of garbage at the city\u2019s only landfill site collapsed late on Friday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}