Weeks of heavy rains caused a massive landslide in Uganda’s capital, burying local homes.
In Uganda, around 40 people were still missing on Wednesday following a landslide at a landfill in the northern part of the capital Kampala, the police said. By Wednesday, the bodies of 30 people had been found under the landmasses of Saturday’s landslide.
The authorities had previously said that there were several children among the victims.
The cause of the landslide was the heavy rains that hit Uganda. According to the authorities, people had also built their houses too close to the landfill.
– The administration should have moved the people elsewhere and paid them compensation if they once wanted a landfill here. They just let the accident happen, accused the local community leader Abubaker Semuwemba Lwanyaga.
For decades, all the capital’s waste has been transported to the landfill located in the Kiteez area.
Africa has seen similar tragedies in the past caused by inadequate waste handling. In 2017, at least 115 people died in a landslide that started at a landfill in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Also in Maputo, Mozambique, at least 17 people died in a similar accident in 2018.