A giant landslide has killed more than four dozen people at a sprawling garbage dump on the outskirts of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.
Scores of others are feared dead after their families reported them missing following the Saturday tragedy at Koshe landfill.
Local resident Musa Suleiman Abdulah told AFP he heard “a big sound” and saw “something like a tornado… rushing to us” when the landslide occurred.
The landslide flattened tin shanties and buried people who eked out a living scavenging for scrap at the landfill.
At least 150 people were at the site when the calamity struck, the BBC reports.
The cause of the tragedy has not been confirmed but some of the affected dwellers pointed an accusing finger at a bio-gas plant being built nearby.
The project is funded by the Ethiopian government in a bid to generate renewable energy from waste.
Communications Minister Negeri Lencho told CNN that they were still investigating how the landslide occurred.
“It’s a sad story because the government has been trying to resettle the people residing in the area,” Lencho told CNN.
The area has been a dumping ground for Addis Ababa’s rubbish for more than five decades.
