Dozens more were missing, with more bodies expecting to be recovered at the site in Ethiopia.
The collapse at the Koshe Garbage Landfill on the outskirts of the capital buried makeshift homes and concrete building.
Some people had been living at the dump outside Addis Ababa, with officials vowing to relocate those who called it home.
The landfill has been a dumping ground for the capital’s garbage for more than 50 years.
The dump is on the outskirts of the capital (Picture: Getty)
Excavators move earth as rescuers work at the site (Picture: Getty)
About 150 people were there when the landslide occurred.
Addis Ababa Mayor Diriba Kuma said 37 people had been rescued and were receiving medical treatment.
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.
Six excavators were digging through the ruins today, as elderly women cried, and others stood anxiously waiting for news of loved ones.
‘My house was right inside there,’ said a shaken Tebeju Asres, pointing to where one of the excavators was digging in black mud.
‘My mother and three of my sisters were there when the landslide happened. Now I don’t know the fate of all of them.’
The resumption of garbage dumping at the site in recent months likely caused the landslide, Assefa said.
At least 46 people died (Picture: Getty)
It is Ethiopia’s largest rubbish dump (Picture: Getty)
The dumping had stopped in recent years, but it resumed after farmers in a nearby region where a new 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 two years but only two or three people were killed, Assefa said.
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 300,000 tons of waste are collected each year from the capital, most of it dumped at the landfill.
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