CAIRO: As rescue efforts in the Duweiqa rockslide disaster enter day five, there are more bodies still under the rubble than had been recovered.

As of press time Tuesday, 57 were confirmed dead and over 70 injured with hundreds of others still believed to be beneath the giant boulders.

The Prosecution Office issued burial licenses for 45 bodies and questioned 51 of the injured so far. It also rushed DNA tests to identify the bodies and the remains, so families could bury the bodies, get the compensation and new housing.

Cairo Governor Abdel-Azim Wazir said 2,000 housing units will be available for the Duweiqa residents displaced by the accident. The units will be offered free of charge, under Suzanne Mubarak’s project to build 10,000 units in Mansheyet Nasser.

The Prosecution Office also ordered an investigation on whether there was construction work or digging carried out in the area prior to the rockslide.

Due to the narrowness of the lanes and dirt roads in the shantytown, authorities bulldozed over certain sections of houses and part of a rail track to clear the way for the heavy machinery to reach the site of collapse.

Congruously, state authorities prevented a candlelight vigil from taking place in Talaat Harb square downtown Monday night to honor the memory of the Duweiqa victims.

Mohamed Gamal El-Din, who attended the vigil, told Daily News Egypt, “It was a disgrace yesterday, security officers were harassing people, forcing them to leave even before the vigil started.”

The people regrouped, Gamal El-Din continued, and then officers hit a female journalist from Al-Badil newspaper. A fight ensued and police confiscated four cameras, three were returned but one — Gamal El-Din’s — wasn’t.

The cause of the Duweiqa disaster is thought to be sewage works for houses on top of the mountain which when mixed with the limestone on the cliff created a viscous paste that made the boulders slide.

The handling of the disaster, and reports that it could have been averted had the residents been relocated when they were supposed to, have elicited much anger from differing facets of Egyptian society.

MP Abbas Abdel-Aziz submitted an urgent questioning in parliament to Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif about the repeated rockslides occurring in the area with no government response.

Abdel-Aziz accused the government of neglecting the lives of its citizens and not responding to the issue after initial rockslides occurred from the Moqattam hill.

Government homes built under the auspices of the first lady Suzanne Mubarak and meant for the relocation of the shantytown residents remain empty. Residents complain that they can only secure a new home by bribing officials and that the apartments are given only to relatives of local officials.

Grand Mufti of Egypt Sheikh Ali Gomaa said the victims of Duweiqa were “martyrs,” a view echoed amongst the residents of the shantytown.

“Those who died here are the martyrs of Ramadan,” a resident who asked for his name to be withheld told us, “and it is a lesson for those who are still alive, to heed their actions and correct them.”

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