Twelve of the 35 fatalities from last week’s garbage-filled mountain collapse in Uganda’s capital were young kids, according to authorities on Friday. 28 more people are still unaccounted for.
The incident happened late on Friday night when a sizable piece broke off the garbage pile at the Kiteezi dump, which is located on Kampala’s northern suburbs. While people slept, dozens of homes next to the landfill were submerged.
Since Wednesday, when 26 people were declared deceased, nine more bodies have been recovered. In a statement following the incident, police stated that because some of the new remains were in such poor condition, it had been difficult to identify them.
The avalanche happened after weeks of intense rains that caused significant flooding and other damage in several areas of the East African nation.
The landfill has been Kampala’s sole rubbish disposal for decades, and the locals have long complained that hazardous material is endangering the environment and ruining it.
Poorly handled piles of municipal waste have caused similar disasters elsewhere in Africa, such as the 2017 Ethiopian event that claimed at least 115 lives.
