Ethiopia Trash Dump Death Toll Rises to 113
March 15, 2017
A woman carries a photograph as she mourns her family members suspected to be missing following a landslide when a mound of trash collapsed on an informal settlement at the Koshe garbage dump in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, March 14, 2017. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri Reuters
By Aaron Maasho
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - The death toll from a landslide at a dump in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has reached 113, officials said on Wednesday, as the government declared three days of national mourning.
Flags flew at half mast to mark the disaster that occurred at the 50-year-old Reppi dump on Saturday evening.
"The total number of dead has reached 113, of which 38 are male and 75 are female," said Dagmawit Moges, a spokeswoman for the city.
"At least 80 other residents are missing," said Temesghen Abraham, a resident at the landfill. "We expect to find their corpses buried here."
The first funerals were held on Tuesday at the nearby Abune Aregawi Church, attended by hundreds of grief-stricken family members.
"Searches are taking place and the number could rise," Moges said.
Hundreds of people live on the dump, the city's only landfill site. Some of the victims scavenged for food and items that could be sold, such as recyclable metal. The landslide destroyed dozens of homes.
Ethiopia is one of Africa's fastest growing economies, but the drive to industrialize has also stoked discontent among those who feel left behind.
In October, the government imposed a national state of emergency after more than 500 people were killed in protests in Oromiya region as anger over a development scheme sparked broader anti-government demonstrations.
(Editing by Katharine Houreld and Robin Pomeroy)
Death toll rises in Ethiopian trash dump landslide
By Briana Duggan, Ryan Prior and Joe Sterling, CNN
Updated 1708 GMT (0108 HKT) March 15, 2017
(CNN)The death toll has risen to 113, after several days of searching turned up more bodies following a weekend landslide at a massive landfill outside Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.
Communications Minister Negeri Lencho told CNN Wednesday the bodies of 38 males and 75 females had been recovered, many of them children.
"This is the result of the search because this is a vast area. It is also deep. The amount (that) collapsed, it is deep, it takes time," the minister said, explaining the sharp increase in the death toll.
Police officers secure the scene after the landslide at the landfill, as excavators aid rescue efforts on the outskirts of Addis Ababa on Sunday, March 12, 2017.
At least 60 people were counted dead shortly after the mounds of decaying trash and debris gave way late Saturday. Many people lived in makeshift houses on top of the garbage.
"There is no explanation for this accident except naturally the pile of this trash may have been shaken. The investigation ... is still going on," Lencho said.
Excavators move mounds of trash Sunday as rescuers look for any possible survivors after the landslide.
The landfill is called Koshe, which means "dust." It's been around for decades, servicing the sprawling and growing capital.
"It's a sad story because the government has been trying to resettle the people residing in the area," Lencho told CNN Monday. The government had also been building a factory to convert waste products at the landfill into energy, he said.
Fisseha Tekle, the chief researcher for Amnesty International in Ethiopia, said the government claims it has been developing for the last decade, "but it was not able to take residents out of this deplorable situation," he said.
And, he said, there had been no concrete action to remove the people from this area prior to this incident.
Residents grieve after more bodies are recovered at the landfill Sunday.
The smells permeate the landfill and nearby areas. Small fires erupt because of the methane gas the decomposing trash produces.
"And those people are living in the middle of that location. It's not a landfill anymore, it's like a mountain," Tekle said. "Whatever kind of country you are, you cannot let people live in this situation."
Tekle said the government should resettle the people and do an "accountability investigation."
The government is "fully responsible for the people living on this site and for their condition of those people who died, and for their lack of safety," he said.
Makeshift dwellings crumbled in the landslide, which took place late Saturday evening.
Along with the dead, dozens were injured in the landslide, Lencho said. Video showed crews with heavy equipment at the scene scraping and digging through the debris and shots of flimsy and upended dwellings.
The government has transferred 290 people who were living on the landfill, but who were not injured in the accident, to a temporary shelter in a youth center in Addis Ababa.
Hope for Korah, a Canadian NGO that assists people living in the area near the dump, said
on its Facebook page in the days after the landslide that people at the landfill were "frantically looking for friends and family."
Some of the people who were trapped tried to call authorities to get help from inside the debris, the group said.
One woman and her three children managed to scramble to safety just as their home became caught up in the landslide, according to the NGO.
A similar landslide occurred in
December 2015 at a waste dump in
Shenzhen, China, killing 58.
CNN's Briana Duggan reported from Nairobi, Kenya, and Ryan Prior and Joe Sterling wrote from Atlanta.
