2008 Cairo landslide
Encyclopedia
The 2008 Cairo landslide happened on September 6, 2008, in Al-Duwayqa, an informal settlement in the Manshiyet Nasser neighborhood of east Cairo
, Egypt
. 119 people died in the rockslide.
Boulders weighing as much as 70 tons rolled into the shantytown following the landslide. 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. 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.
The cause of the landslide has not been definitively determined, but theories included leaked sewage from development projects that eroded rocks. An internal investigation determined that the slide was caused by "fate" and no one would be blamed for it.
Amnesty International reports that thousands of Egyptians still continue to live in unsafe slums.
In May 2010, a court found Mahmoud Yassin, a Cairo deputy governor, guilty of negligence and sentenced him for 5 years of imprisonment. Seven other officials were sentenced to 3 years each.
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. 119 people died in the rockslide.
Boulders weighing as much as 70 tons rolled into the shantytown following the landslide. 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. 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.
The cause of the landslide has not been definitively determined, but theories included leaked sewage from development projects that eroded rocks. An internal investigation determined that the slide was caused by "fate" and no one would be blamed for it.
Amnesty International reports that thousands of Egyptians still continue to live in unsafe slums.
In May 2010, a court found Mahmoud Yassin, a Cairo deputy governor, guilty of negligence and sentenced him for 5 years of imprisonment. Seven other officials were sentenced to 3 years each.