Three villages buried in Uganda by landslide on slopes of Mt. Elgon- 100 feared

[Mark]

Posted on June 25, 2012


June 25, 2012 – UGANDA - Many people were feared dead after villages were buried in a landslide on Monday in eastern Uganda on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, which straddles the Kenyan border. Some media reports said about 10 people had been killed in the landslide while the area Member of Parliament, David Wakikona, told Reuters that up to 100 people could have been buried. This could not be independently verified. “Three villages have been flattened in the Bumwalukani parish on the slopes of Mt. Elgon and the initial reports I have is that more than 100 have been buried,” he said. –Reuters

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[Mark]

Uganda tragedy: 450 people missing and believed to be buried under mountains of mudJune 26, 2012 – UGANDA – Rescue workers are trying to find an estimated 450 people believed to be buried in a deadly landslide in Uganda. Eighteen people have been confirmed dead after three villages were swept away on the slopes of Mount Elgon. Steven Malinga, Uganda’s minister for disaster relief, said moving people to safer areas was a priority. However, he said many people were refusing to move, as the villages near Mount Elgon had fertile ground and fewer instances of malaria. In March 2010, thousands were forced to flee after after a landslide killed more than 350 people in Uganda’s eastern Bududa district. “At 2pm, the ground trembled, followed by heavy rumbling of soil and stones which covered our home,” Rachael Namwono, a villager in Bududa district, told Uganda’s private Monitor newspaper. A Red Cross team is in the area to assess the damage and loss of life. “The total number at risk in this buried area is 448, so far nobody has been retrieved,” Red Cross officer Michael Nataka told the Reuters news agency. He said that there was a need to force people to move from the mountain sides as they tended not to heed the advice that the area is dangerous. “The Mount Elgon area has had so many places with cracks, so each time there is rainfall for a while, this water just seeps into these cracks and then eventually the landslide happens,” Mr Nataka said. “There is need for some level of enforcement.” Mr.  Malinga agreed it might have to come to this. “Eventually we have to pass a law to move people from the top and the sides of the mountain, and find alternative communities where we can relocate them,” the minister told the BBC’s Network Africa program. He urged people to move to camps lower down the mountain, where they would be given food, containers for water and utensils. -BBC