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The people of Chibuabuar, an informal settlement of modest wooden houses perched on a hill between a highway and the coast of Pemba in northern Mozambique, thought they had escaped the worst hurricane Kenneth.
But Sunday night, the vast garbage dump that dominates their informal neighborhood gave way, sending piles of rubbish crushing into the valley, destroying five houses and pushing another meter down the descent, still intact.
Residents told AFP that four people had died and another was still missing, while the local council had warned that seven people may have been killed in the landslide of waste.
"That's what happened at 8 pm and two houses fell first," said Celso Carlinho, a 37-year-old resident of the city, who lives at the top of the valley near the mound. where he had an unobstructed view of the damage.
With his neighbors, Carlinho came down to give a hand.
In one house, "we found a man, his wife and two daughters," all dead, he told AFP.
It took a Brazilian rescue group, initially deployed after Cyclone Idai after six weeks earlier devastated by Mozambique, and now reacting to the consequences of Kenneth, to extract the four bodies.
Search with a digger
The team was led by Captain Kleber Castro who confirmed to AFP that four corpses had been found "unfortunately".
The Castro team has worked tirelessly to rescue survivors from the flooded areas and some of the nearly 35,000 homes partially or totally destroyed by Hurricane Kenneth, according to official figures.
In Cabo Delgado, in the region around Pemba, no fewer than 168,000 people were affected by the cyclone and its aftermath.
"They searched for other corpses with a shovel and they found none," Carlinho said.
"The garbage has accumulated over the two houses – these two houses – this one and this one," he said pointing to the valley with the ocean visible in the background.
Young men, one of whom was wearing white Wellington boots, stood very high on the newly dislodged mound, sifting through the black heap.
But only broken appliances, chip packs, glbad beer bottles, food waste and plastic bags were available.
No money
Residents complained that the landfill was a threat and a scourge to the community for years.
"In 2014, the government did nothing – three people died: a man, a woman and a child," said local woman Rose Augusto, 29, whose home is located near the edge of a cliff eroding. through the valley of the dump.
The city had planned a new landfill site 20 kilometers (12 miles) away, outside the city, but could not open because it failed. to raise funds for a fence.
Augusto is reluctantly used to living in constant danger, even if the disaster hit a few inches from his own home this time.
"I'm not afraid," she insisted. She was wearing purple leggings, black flip-flops, and a shawl wrapped around her head to keep her hair dry despite the rain that continued to hamper the efforts of the helper.
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