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At least 48 people killed in garbage dump landslide in Ethiopia

by Reuters
Monday, 13 March 2017 08:21 GMT

Hundreds of people live on 50-year-old Reppi dump, city's only landfill site, scavenging for food and items they can sell such as recyclable metal

ADDIS ABABA, March 13 (Reuters) - At least 48 people, 15 of them children, were killed in a landslide at a huge garbage dump on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the city's spokesman said on Monday.

Hundreds of people live on the 50-year-old Reppi dump, the city's only landfill site, scavenging for food and items they can sell such as recyclable metal.

Efforts are still under way to find people still missing since the landslide late on Saturday which destroyed 49 dwellings, city spokesman Amare Mekonen said. Twenty-eight people were being treated in hospital.

"In a bid to prevent such things happening again, people who were living in this area have now been taken to youth centres in other parts of the city," he said.

(Writing by Clement Uwiringiyimana; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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