Avalanche of garbage kills 62, with dozens more missing, in horror accident at Ethiopia landfill

The death toll has reached 62 from the collapse of a mountain of trash at a massive garbage dump on the outskirts of Ethiopia’s capital, the state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate reported on Monday, as relatives waited for news of the dozens of people said to be missing.

It was not clear what caused Saturday night’s collapse, though residents have said the dumping of trash had resumed there in recent months after protests at a newer landfill site.

Weeping mourners clutching photos of the dead lined the narrow roads around the Koshe landfill as police tried to block people from entering, while rescue and recovery work continued. Most of the dead are women and children.

Hundreds of waste-pickers work at the landfill every day, and others find cheap housing there. Many of the mud-and-stick houses were buried under the rubble, and about 54 people so far have received medical treatment, said Solomon Bussa, the chief of clinical services at the Alert Hospital where the injured have been taken.

One survivor, Mulate Debebe, told The Associated Press she had been bathing her two children Saturday evening at their home inside the landfill when disaster struck.