Landslide at Ethiopia garbage dump kills at least 30
ADDIS ABABA - At least 30 people were killed and dozens more hurt in a giant landslide at Ethiopia's largest rubbish dump on the outskirts of the capital Addis Ababa, a city official said Sunday.
The tragedy on Saturday saw dozens of homes of squatters living in the dump levelled after a part of the largest pile of rubbish at the Koshe landfill collapsed, an AFP journalist said.
"The death toll is now 30," said Dagmawit Moges, head of the city communications bureau, adding that the number of fatalities could rise further.
Many of the victims were squatters who scavenged for a living in the dump, she said.
Construction materials, wooden sticks and plastic sheeting could be seen in the wreckage, the AFP journalist said.
The Koshe site has for more than 40 years been the main garbage dump for Addis Ababa, a rapidly growing city of some four million people.
According to local residents, some 50 houses with about seven people living in each of them were built on the trash.
People had built the houses about two to three years ago, said Berhanu Degefe, a rubbish collector who lives at the dump but whose home was not destroyed.
"Their livelihood depends on the trash. They collect from here and they live here," Degefe said, referring to the victims and other squatters.
"This part, all of it went down," he said, gesturing at a huge chunk of the hill that suddenly slid. "A lot of people died last night."
