The death toll from the landslide at a massive garbage dump in Ethiopia's capital has climbed to more than 60 people.
Ethiopian government media said Monday that at least 62 died in the weekend disaster, while Addis Ababa Mayor Deriba Kuma put the death toll at 65, including 20 men and 45 women.
Communications Minister Negeri Lencho said that “several people are still missing; the search will continue.”
Dozens were buried when a mountain of trash at the 50-year-old Koshe dumpsite came crashing down with little warning on Saturday.
Some of the victims were squatters living in shacks at the site; others were scavengers who dig through the garbage every day, looking for items to sell.
“The accident was so huge that we do not know the number of people who have died and who survived,” one survivor told a VOA Horn of Africa reporter in Addis Ababa.
The government did not give a cause for the landfill collapse, but squatters blamed it on a biogas plant being constructed nearby.
Rights group Amnesty International said the tragedy was preventable. It said Ethiopian officials knew the landfill was full but continued to dump trash there and let people live and scavenge at the site.
“These people ... had no option but to live and work in such a hazardous environment because of the government’s failure to protect their right to adequate housing and decent work," the group said in a statement.
It called on the government to account for the missing and provide survivors of the landslide with safe housing and working conditions.
Funeral services for the victims took place around the city Monday, with government officials in attendance.
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