Uganda Landslide Tragedy: Death Toll Climbs to 30

Authorities in Kampala, Uganda, announced on Wednesday the grim discovery of six more bodies, among them two young children, from a devastating waste landslide, pushing the death toll to 30. Following the catastrophe at the Kiteezi landfill in the city’s northern district last Saturday, several individuals remain missing.

The tragedy saw many people, homes, and livestock buried under enormous mounds of decaying rubbish. “Today, the team retrieved six dead bodies by 1730 hours (1430 GMT). This makes a total of 30 bodies so far recovered,” stated the Uganda Police Force on X, once known as Twitter. The deceased identified in this recent find include a three-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl.

Earlier, Patrick Onyango, the police spokesman for the Kampala metropolitan area, had revised the number of dead to 26, with 39 individuals still unaccounted for, including 35 residents and four individuals who were collecting waste.

In the ongoing search and rescue efforts, which are being challenged by severe weather conditions, machinery is used to move through the debris at the site in Kiteezi. It has been reported that around 120 people are taking shelter in a school nearby, while an estimated 33 residences were likely lost to the landslide triggered by substantial rainfall.

Kampala’s city mayor, Erias Lukwago, has declared the incident a “national disaster” and voiced concerns over the possibility of more victims being trapped beneath the waste. He had earlier highlighted the risks posed by the overflowing landfill, which has been in operation since 1996 and serves as Kampala’s primary waste disposal site.

President Yoweri Museveni has engaged the army’s special forces in the search and rescue mission and questioned the decision to allow settlements near such a dangerous area. Museveni announced on X his decision to compensate the victims’ families, offering five million Ugandan shillings ($1,300) for each deceased and one million shillings ($270) for the injured.

Meanwhile, locals have expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of the landfill risks. Community leader Abubaker Semuwemba Lwanyaga criticized the government, saying, “The government should have relocated people from here if they wanted to put a landfill and compensated them, and not waited for a disaster to happen.”

This event comes at a time when heavy rains are wreaking havoc across East Africa, including a recent landslide in Ethiopia that took around 250 lives.