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Kenya dam disaster toll at 48 with all missing accounted for

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AFP Nairobi
Last Updated : May 14 2018 | 7:50 PM IST

Kenyan emergency workers have found three more bodies after a dam burst last week, police said today, bringing the toll from the tragedy to 48, while authorities confirmed no one else was missing.

The body of an 11-year-old boy was found Monday after two others were uncovered Sunday, as rescuers spent five days picking through mud and debris in Solai, near the central Rift Valley city of Nakuru.

"The bodies were not reported missing which means there could have been people who had visited the area. The search is going on, it was only scaled down but not called off," said regional police commissioner Mwongo Chimwaga.

On Friday authorities had said 40 people were still missing, however a search among those displaced and already found dead revealed that all had been accounted for by Saturday. It was on Wednesday last week that a portion of the earthen wall of the dam collapsed, sending millions of litres of water coursing down a muddy slope, engulfing nearby settlements and destroying power lines over a stretch of some 10 kilometres (six miles).

The disaster came after weeks of torrential rains in Kenya, with flooding and mudslides leaving 179 dead.

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First Published: May 14 2018 | 7:50 PM IST

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