Death toll in Uganda rubbish heap collapse reaches 24 as rescuers find more victims

KAMPALA, Uganda — The death toll from a mountain of rubbish that collapsed in the Ugandan capital rose to 24 on Monday as rescuers with excavators continued searching for victims, according to the city authority.

At least four children are among those killed by the collapse at the Kiteezi landfill Friday, police told reporters.

The collapse is believed to have been triggered by heavy rainfall. The precise details of what happened were unclear, but the city authority said there was a “structural failure in waste mass.”

Irene Nakasiita, a spokeswoman for the Uganda Red Cross, said there was no hope of rescuing more people alive.

It was not clear how many people were unaccounted for. The Kiteezi landfill is a vast rubbish dumpsite in an impoverished hillside area that receives hundreds of garbage trucks daily. The city authority has been aiming to decommission it since declaring it full years ago.

It’s also a kind of no-man’s land in the city of 3 million, attractive to women and children who scavenge plastic waste they aim to sell. Others have built permanent homes nearby.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ordered an investigation into the disaster, asking in a series of posts on the social platform X why people were living in close proximity to an unstable heap of garbage.

“Who allowed people to live near such a potentially hazardous and dangerous heap?” Museveni said, adding that effluent from the site is hazardous enough that people should not be living there.