A huge pile of rubbish collapsed at a huge landfill site in Uganda’s capital, killing at least 18 people, the Red Cross said.
Fourteen other people were injured when the Kitezi landfill, which serves as a waste disposal site for most of Kampala, collapsed late Friday night. At least two children were among the dead, the Kampala Capital City Authority said in a statement.
The building is believed to have collapsed due to heavy rains. The exact details of what happened are unclear, but city officials said there was a “structural failure in the garbage dump.”
The death toll rose to 18 after more bodies were recovered on Sunday, Uganda Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasita said.
The assessment “is not yet complete,” he said, adding that rain was slowing searchers’ efforts to sift through the garbage dump.
The Kitezi landfill is on a steep slope in a poor area of the city. Women and children who earn money by collecting plastic waste often gather there, and a few houses have also been built close to the landfill.
Kampala officials have been considering closing the site and turning a larger area outside the city into a waste disposal site for several years. It was unclear why the plan has fallen through since 2016.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered an investigation into the incident, and asked in several posts on the social platform X why people were living so close to the unstable waste dump.
“Who allowed people to live near such a potentially dangerous and deadly dump?” Museveni said, adding that the waste from the site was so dangerous that people should not live there.