Landslide of Garbage Kills 46 at Ethiopia’s Largest Dump

A landslide of trash has killed at least 46 people and left a number of others missing at a massive garbage dump outside Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa.

Officials Sunday said most of the victims were women and children who either live in shacks at the Koshe dump or dig through it every day, looking for anything to sell.

Witnesses say the mountain of rubbish collapsed so fast that it gave victims little time to get out of the way.

Police believe about 300 people lived at the dump, with hundreds of scavengers showing up every day.

The dump is the main depository of garbage for Addis Ababa, a city of about 4 million people with a burgeoning economy.  

The Ethiopian government had eased up dumping trash at Koshe in recent years, but resumed it when farmers near the site of a new dump protested.

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