Landslide kills 15, buries six villages in East Uganda

International

A LANDSLIDE that was triggered by heavy rains buried several homes in six villages in eastern Uganda and took the lives of at least 15 people.

Police authorities reported that aside from the recorded casualties, 113 residents are still missing, while 15 were accounted as injured after they were rescued and admitted to the Buluganya Health Center.

The landslide happened in the Bulambuli district, about 300 km east of the capital Kampala on Wednesday, wherein at least 40 households were completely buried by the landslide, and some houses only had a roof showing above the ground.

Charles Odongtho, spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) which oversees disaster response work, said all the bridges in the area were swept away and floods filled the roads with mud, causing vehicles to be stranded including ambulances and rescue vehicle units.

"We are shocked that it was this devastating," he said as per a Reuters report.

The Uganda Red Cross Society, in a statement, said 13 bodies had already been recovered from the site, and there are more who were buried. Authorities are expecting that the death toll will rise, as the rescue operations continue.

According to the Daily Monitor newspaper report, most of the bodies recovered were from children.

Bulambuli District Woman MP Irene Muloni said survivors of the landslide will be relocated by the government

Muloni urged residents to leave the dangerous place and avoid living in landslide-prone areas.

“Waterfalls are everywhere, and the rainfall is excessive. Let people be evacuated immediately,” she said.

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) has already issued a disaster alert due to unusually heavy rainfall experienced since October.(LAO)