Death toll from Uganda rubbish dump landslide rises to 12

The death toll from a garbage landslide at a vast landfill in the Ugandan capital Kampala has risen to 12, police said on Sunday.

Local media said homes, people and livestock were  engulfed in mountains of rubbish at the dump in Kiteezi on Saturday after a collapse caused by heavy rainfall.

Kampala mayor Erias Lukwago has described the site as a disaster waiting to happen, after raising concerns earlier this year that the waste was causing health risks.

"We have so far retrieved 12 dead bodies from the garbage heap and rescued 14 people alive," Kampala's metropolitan police spokesman Patrick Onyango told AFP.

"The rescue operation is still ongoing until we are sure no one is trapped under (the garbage)," he said, adding that several animals had been rescued alive, including a dog.

Kampala Capital City Authority, which operates the landfill, had on Saturday given a death toll of eight including two children.

"In our estimation, about 1,000 people have been displaced by the incident and (we are) currently working with other agencies of government and the community leadership to see how to help the affected people," Onyango said.

A Ugandan police excavator churned through huge mounds of rubbish Saturday as large crowds of local residents looked on, according to images from the scene.

Some gathered behind yellow police tape carrying pictures of their missing loved ones.

- 'Bound to happen' -

Lukwago told AFP on Saturday that the Kiteezi landfill, a 36-acre (14 hectare) site in a northern district of the capital, was full to capacity.

"This is a disaster and was bound to happen," he added.

In January, Lukwago, who carries the honorary title of Lord Mayor of Kampala, had warned that people working and living near the Kiteezi landfill were at risk of numerous health hazards due to overflowing waste.

He said the site was not maintained at all, describing the situation as a "national crisis" that needed the central government and parliament to intervene.

The 36-acre landfill was established in 1996 and is the dump for almost all garbage collected across Kampala.

Lukwago said it received about 1,500 tonnes of waste a day.

Several areas in Uganda and other parts of East Africa have been battered by heavy rains recently, including Ethiopia, the second most populous country on the continent.

Devastating mudslides in a remote mountainous area in southern Ethiopia last month killed around 250 people.

In February 2010, mudslides in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people.