19 dead after Uganda rubbish dump landslide

By AFP
August 12, 2024
People gather as volunteers search to retrieve the bodies of residents killed by a landslide due to heavy rainfall in the Lusanja village, outside Kampala, Uganda on August 10, 2024. — Reuters
People gather as volunteers search to retrieve the bodies of residents killed by a landslide due to heavy rainfall in the Lusanja village, outside Kampala, Uganda on August 10, 2024. — Reuters 

KAMPALA: 19 people, including five children are confirmed dead after a landslide at a huge garbage dump in the Ugandan capital Kampala, a senior official said on Sunday, amid claims the site was a disaster waiting to happen.

Local media said homes, 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.

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”.