2008 Cairo landslide

The 2008 Cairo landslide happened on September 6, 2008 at el-Deweika, an informal settlement in the Manshiyat Naser neighborhood of east Cairo, Egypt; 119 people died in the rockslide. Some people blamed for the landslide were arrested and held accountable.[1]

Boulders weighing as much as 70 tons rolled into the shanty town following the landslide.[2] After most of the neighborhood had been flattened, those families still living in the slum were evicted and any remaining buildings were flattened by the government.[2] As a result, hundreds of families were left homeless and many still live in squalor near the site of the disaster, despite government promises to find them homes.[3]

The cause of the landslide has not been definitively determined, but theories included leaked sewage from development projects that eroded rocks.[4][5] An internal investigation determined that the slide was caused by "fate" and no one would be blamed for it.[6]

Amnesty International reports that thousands of Egyptians still continue to live in unsafe slums.[3]

According to Amnesty International, authorities failed to evacuate the impoverished residents and provide them with temporary or alternative housing. People living in areas deemed unsafe in Al-Duwayqa and Ezbet Bekhit were forced out in a manner which breached the international standards that states must observe while carrying out evictions.[7]

In May 2010, a court found Mahmoud Yassin, a Cairo deputy governor, guilty of negligence and sentenced him for five years of imprisonment. Seven other officials were sentenced to three years each.[1]

References
  1. Egypt jails government officials over Cairo rockslide BBC
  2. Following the rockfall, Egyptian slum dwellers have little more than hope Christian Science Monitor, March 20, 2009.
  3. Cairo's poorest risk being buried alive in their homes Amnesty International
  4. Emaar accused of culpability in Duweiqa rockslide Archived September 27, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Daily News, Egypt.
  5. Compounding the Loss Archived 2009-08-07 at the Wayback Machine Al-Ahram, Egypt.
  6. "Egypt's Deadly Infrastructure Problems". Archived from the original on 2009-11-20. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  7. "Egypt: Buried alive; trapped by poverty and neglect in Cairo's informal settlements". ReliefWeb. 2009-11-12. Retrieved 2016-04-29.


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