With most roads rendered impassable by torrents of mud and tons of hauling materials, rescue crews are racing against time to locate survivors in eastern Uganda, which has been battered by torrential rains for the past two days, with the Prime Minister’s Office issuing “ disaster alert’, as the storm caused very serious problems in many areas.
DEADLY LANDSLIDE STRIKES BULAMBULI DISTRICT, UGANDA 🇺🇬
Date: November 28, 2024
HEAVY RAINS TRIGGER DEADLY LANDSLIDE
A devastating landslide swept on through District on November 27, 2024
-At least 13 lives have been lost.
-40 households have been destroyedInformation…
— Weather monitor (@Weathermonitors)
At least 15 people have been killed and 15 injured, police said, adding that 113 people remain missing and efforts are underway to locate them.
The work of the rescue crews is very difficult, since ambulances and other machines are unable to reach the affected areas.
The Uganda Red Cross Society said on Thursday at least 13 bodies had been recovered after landslides “completely buried” 40 homes in six villages of the mountainous district of Bulambuli the previous night
— Elmi Farah Boodhari (@BoodhariFarah)
Footage released by the Red Cross shows residents of the village of Masougos pulling a dead man from a thick layer of mud and carrying him with difficulty, while some women watch them crying. This morning, Fahira Balani, head of Bulambuli district, said 30 people were missing in that village.
According to the police, a total of five communities, (Masugu, Namachele, Natola, Namagugu and Tagalu) have been destroyed.
Uganda Red Cross director John Cliff Wamala said at least 40 houses had collapsed and many others had been damaged in Bulabuli district, which borders Kenya.
Two other landslides in the same area destroyed six farms and a church, while a bridge was “swept away” by the mudflow in a neighboring community.
In northwestern Uganda, the Tangi River, a tributary of the White Nile, overflowed.
VIDEO: 30 people feared dead, 20 homes buried after landslides strike village in Uganda
— Cedar News (@cedar_news)
The rainy season started at the beginning of November, but in the last few days the weather in Uganda has been particularly intense and as a result roads, bridges and other infrastructures have suffered significant damage.
In February 2010, a landslide killed more than 350 people in the Mount Elgon region of eastern Uganda.
