The Ethiopian government will relocate the survivors of a recent garbage dump landslide, official said.

“We have already set a committee to resettle these people permanently because they have lost their property and their homes, said Dr Negeri Lencho, the minister for Government Communications Affairs.

"The government is responsible for resettling these people, " he added.

Dr Negeri was speaking at a Saturday press conference in his office in Addis Ababa.

Others homeless

He, however, declined to say weather or not the ill-fated landfill would be relocated.

The disaster at the Koshe Reppi landfill on the outskirts of Addis Ababa last Saturday, claimed at least 113 lives and rendered several others homeless.

Dr Negeri indicated that the search for the victims was continuing.

The residents

The incident happened about six months after the half a century old landfill was ordered relocated to Sendafa town of Oromia Region.

Meanwhile, the residents of Sendafa have opposed the setting of a dump site on their land.

They say they were not consulted by the Addis Ababa authorities on the matter.

Unfortunate accident

“If they were not consulted, I think they could have stopped before it [the Sendafa landfill] was built…But we are not going to continue using the collapsed landfill,” said Dr Negeri.

Dr Negeri said the Koshe tragedy was under investigation by two institutions – the Addis Ababa University and university of Texas.

“We don’t know about the cause. It is under investigation… The government had plans to evacuate the people before the unfortunate accident happened. This is unfortunate,” he said.