At least 34 people have been killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks, sending thick sludge and rocks barrelling into homes, disaster officials said on Friday.
Rescue teams were picking through the rubble, looking for survivors and victims of the disaster which took place on Thursday in the town of Bukalasi in the Bududa district. An unknown number of people were still missing.
Some of the bodies had been partly covered with banana leaves by members of the public.
“I have received the sad news of landslides wreaking havoc in Bududa District, killing a yet-to-(be)specified number of residents. The government has dispatched rescue teams to the affected areas,” President Yoweri Museveni wrote on Twitter.
At least 100 people were reported killed in a landslide in Bududa in March 2010, and in 2012 landslides destroyed three villages. Government efforts to move vulnerable people to neighbouring districts have faced resistance from residents.
