Landslide Death Victims In Uganda Become 28 People, Hundreds More Still Missing

UNSPLASH/Timo Volz ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - The bodies of two three-year-old boys were among those evacuated from mud in eastern Uganda. The discovery of this body increased the number of victims who died from landslides last week which buried several villages to 28 people.

More than 100 people are feared to be missing after a landslide on Wednesday last week on the slopes of Mount Elgon, an extinct volcano on the border with Kenya, about 300 km (190 miles) east of the capital, Kamala.

More bodies have been found since, including the two boys, police said in a statement on Monday night.

Since October, unusual heavy rains have triggered widespread floods and landslides in several areas in Uganda, weather that the Ugandan Red Cross says is caused by climate change.

Areas around the scene of the tragedy last week have experienced several deadly landslides, one of which occurred in 2010 which killed at least 80 people.

Efforts by authorities in the past to persuade residents in areas most vulnerable to disasters to move to safer places have not paid off because most of the population is poor and does not have the means to do so.