Green campaigners, the United Nations and human rights activists in Africa and Europe are ratcheting up pressure for an investigation of allegations that Swiss and Italian waste disposal companies are dumping toxic waste in war-torn Somalia.

Although the concerns were raised in 1992, when Greenpeace named the Italian and Swiss companies allegedly involved in illegal trafficking of toxic waste to Somalia, they have assumed new urgency following the 2004 tsunami. Reports from the semi-autonomous Puntland region of north-eastern Somalia say hundreds of rusting containers washed ashore after the tsunami struck on 26 December, leaking toxic waste.

Reports from Haafun, a tiny island that bore the full brunt of the tsunami, and the central region of Mudug say hundreds of people are falling ill with respiratory infections, skin infections and mouth and abdominal bleeding.

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