Ethiopia: Survivors of landfill disaster get eviction notice but have nowhere to go

ESAT News (March 27, 2017)

Survivors of the landfill landslide a fortnight ago that killed over 100 people say they have received eviction notice from authorities but have nowhere to go.

A survivor who lost seven of his family members told ESAT that 325 households have just been told to leave without any substitute of dwelling and compensation.

Asres Ewnetu, speaking on the phone from Addis Ababa, said although they have received emergency help from residents of Addis, the government has done nothing despite the millions of dollars fund raised for victims of the disaster. He said survivors are grateful to the kind gestures of dwellers of the capital who still bring food and clothings to the victims.

“It makes me hate to be an Ethiopian at the moment because the government does not care about the people,” he told ESAT.

Asres said bodies are still being dug out of the garbage. He believes there are more bodies left in the pile of garbage than the numbers dug out so far. He blames an explosion at the biogas project at the site caused the landslide.

On the night of March 11, 2017 a mountain of garbage at a landfill outside the capital descended on squatters and shanty houses nearby killing over one hundred people.

Most of the victims are waste pickers who live off the garbage feeding on leftover food and salvaging items for sale. The area, locally called Qoshe, means garbage in Amharic, has been the dumping ground for the city for nearly 50 years.