The death toll from Friday's landslide at a huge landfill site in Uganda's capital Kampala has risen to 24, local authorities announced today, as quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency.
The same source reveals that rescue teams are still at the site of the incident, in the Kiteezi neighbourhood, searching for victims with excavators.
According to the local press, quoted by the France-Press news agency (AFP), people, animals and houses were hit by the landslide following heavy rain and at least four children are among the fatalities.
The exact details of what happened are unclear, but the municipal authority said that there was a "structural failure in the mass of debris".
Irene Nakasiita, spokesperson for the Uganda Red Cross, said today that there is no hope of rescuing any more people alive.
It is not known exactly how many people are missing.
The Kiteezi landfill is on a steep slope in an impoverished part of the city.
Women and children who collect plastic waste for some income often gather there and there are a few houses built close to the landfill.
The Kampala authorities have for years considered closing the site and building a larger area outside the city for waste disposal, but to date it has not been clear why the plan has not got off the ground since 2016.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 79, who has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1986, has ordered an investigation into the incident, questioning in a series of posts on the social platform X why people were living near an unstable pile of rubbish.
"Who allowed people to live near such a potentially dangerous pile," Museveni questioned, adding that the effluent from the landfill is too dangerous for people to live there.
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