Addis Ababa: A mountain of trash gave way in a massive garbage dump on the outskirts of Ethiopia's capital, killing at least 46 people and leaving several dozen missing, residents said, as officials vowed to relocate those whocalled the landfill home.
Addis Ababa city spokeswoman Dagmawit Moges said most of the 46 dead were women and children, and more bodies were expected to be found in the coming hours.
It was not immediately clear what caused last night's collapse at the Koshe Garbage Landfill, which buried several makeshift homes and concrete buildings. The landfill has been a dumping ground for the capital's garbage for more than 50 years.
Many people at the landfill had been scavenging items to make a living, but others live there because renting homes, largely built of mud and sticks, is relatively inexpensive. An AP reporter saw four bodies taken away by ambulances after being pulled from the debris. Elderly women cried, and others stood anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. Six excavators dug through the ruins.
"My house was right inside there," said a shaken Tebeju Asres, pointing to where one of the excavators was digging in deep, black mud. "My mother and three of my sisters were there when the landslide happened. Now I don't know the fate of all of them."
Smaller collapses have occurred at Koshe or "dirty" in the local Amharic language in the past two years but only two or three people were killed, Assefa said.
"In the long run, we will conduct a resettling program to relocate people who live in and around the landfill," the Addis Ababa mayor said.
Around 500 waste-pickers are believed to work at the landfill every day, sorting through the debris from the capital's estimated 4 million residents. City officials say close to 300,000 tons of waste are collected each year from the capital, most of it dumped at the landfill.
Since 2010, city officials have warned that the landfill was running out of room and was being closed in by nearby housing and schools.
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