The number of fatalities has now reached 34 after four more bodies were found at the scene of a significant garbage avalanche in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, police reported on Friday.
During the weekend, a landfill collapse in Kiteezi’s northern district buried homes, animals, and people beneath mountains of foul-smelling trash.
The local MP has cautioned that there may yet be more people missing.
“With the recovery of four bodies on Thursday, the death toll has reached 34,” Kampala Metropolitan police spokesman Patrick Onyango told AFP.
He stated that even though a portion of the waste site flooded and made it impossible to utilize excavators, the victims’ recovery was still ongoing.
He continued by saying that Abdul Nasir, a man who had gone missing in 2022, was among the dead found on Thursday.
After the bodies were found, the official count of persons missing dropped to 35 from 39 at the beginning.
But Muwada Nkunyingi, the area’s parliamentary representative and shadow foreign affairs minister, declared: “There are more people missing compared to what police are reporting.”
“From what the community members are saying, the dead could reach even 100 because since the tragedy we see people turning up looking for their loved ones, family members,” he told AFP.
Large trash mounds have been broken up by excavators, frequently after intense downpours.
Erias Lukwago, the mayor of Kampala, called the event a “national disaster”.
He had earlier issued a warning over the potential hazards of rubbish overflowing from the location, which was created in 1996 and receives nearly all of the trash that is collected around Kampala.
Recent torrential rains have devastated some districts in Uganda and other parts of East Africa.
