"My mother and three of my sisters were there when the landslide happened. Now I don't know the fate of all of them."

Residents react at the scene of a garbage landslide. Many people at the landfill had been scavenging items to make a living, but others live there because renting homes, largely built of mud and sticks, is relatively inexpensive. (Elias Meseret/Associated Press)

The resumption of garbage dumping at the site in recent months likely caused the landslide, Assefa said. The dumping had stopped in recent years, but it resumed after farmers in a nearby restive region where a new garbage landfill complex was being built blocked dumping in their area.

Smaller collapses have occurred at Koshe — or "dirty" in the local Amharic language — in the past twoyears but only two or three people were killed, Assefa said.

"In the long run, we will conduct a resettling program to relocate people who live in and around the landfill," the Addis Ababa mayor said.

An excavator aids rescue efforts at the scene of a garbage landslide. Smaller collapses have occurred at Koshe — or 'dirty' in the local Amharic language — in the past two years but only two or three people were killed. (Elias Meseret/Associated Press)

Around 500 waste-pickers are believed to work at the landfill every day, sorting through the debris from the capital's estimated 4 million residents. City officials say close to 272,000 tonnes of waste are collected each year from the capital, most of it dumped at the landfill.

Since 2010, city officials have warned that