Death toll reaches 113 in Ethiopia’s landfill disaster

ESAT News (March 13, 2017)The death toll from a landfill landslide in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa reached 113, local media reported quoting city administration.

Mayor of Addis Ababa, Diriba Kuma told reporters that 75 of the victims were women.

Residents near the landfill who spoke to reporters however say the number is much higher than official estimates.

The search for survivors and bodies continue for the fourth day today but residents who are still looking for their loved ones say the government is not doing enough to speed up the search. They say not enough excavators and machineries were available to the search for survivors and bodies.

Some residents say they had to pay for operators of the excavators to search for their loved ones.

4,000,000 tons garbage is dumped everyday on the landfill, locally called Koshe, that is 36 hectares wide and 40 meters deep.

Koshe, Amharic for garbage, has been the city’s dumping ground for over 50 years. An estimated 500 waste pickers call Koshe home, scavenging for food and salvaging items for sale. The majority of the victims live in makeshift shelters.