At least 21 people, including a three-month-old baby, have been killed in a landslide at a waste disposal site in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, authorities in the East African nation reported on Sunday.
The incident occurred on Friday night, when a huge pile of garbage at the Kiteezi landfill, said to be the city’s only dump site, collapsed after weeks of heavy rain. Homes on the edge of the site were crushed and buried beneath the mound while residents were asleep, according to Reuters.
The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) said on Saturday that a “structural failure in waste mass” caused a “section of the landfill” to collapse. As of Saturday, at least 14 people had been rescued and taken to hospitals, according to a KCCA statement.
On Sunday, Kampala police spokesman Patrick Onyango told AFP that the incident had forced around 1,000 people to leave their homes. “The rescue operation is still ongoing until we are sure no one is trapped,” he said.
The Uganda Red Cross Society has said it is coordinating with authorities to deliver humanitarian assistance and has set up emergency shelter tents to house displaced families.
The 14-hectare Kiteezi landfill, which has been in use for nearly three decades, reportedly receives an estimated 1,500 tons of waste collected throughout Kampala each day.
Residents living in the area have long complained of hazardous waste polluting the environment. Authorities had planned to close the facility in 2016 for the commissioning of another site outside the city. The plan has been stalled due to financial constraints, David Luyimbazi, deputy executive director of the KCCA has said, according to local media.
“Who allowed people to live near such a potentially hazardous and dangerous heap?” Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, ordering an investigation into the incident.
Lilian Aber, Ugandan minister of state for disaster preparedness, relief, and refugees, has advised people living in the “risky gazetted area” to cooperate with the government and accept temporary relocation while authorities decide on long-term plans.