BULAMBULI, UGANDA (BNO NEWS) -- Two rain-triggered landslides in the eastern region of Uganda buried hundreds of homes on early Monday morning, the Red Cross said, killing at least 23 people. Others are feared missing.
The deadliest landslide happened at around 1 a.m. local time in Mabono village, which is located in Bulambuli District. A second landslide happened in nearby Meru village, while heavy flooding was affecting a number of villages throughout the region.
Red Cross spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde said a total of 23 bodies had been recovered as of Monday afternoon. "We are looking at 23 [fatalities] so far, but the excavation and rescue teams are still ongoing," she said.
Ntabadde said fifteen people were killed in Mabono village, including six children, while eight were killed in Meru village. Two people, a woman and a man, were also injured in the landslide in Mabono and were rushed to an area hospital.
The Red Cross spokeswoman said rescue workers believe more people are missing, saying "hundreds" of homes were buried, but an assessment is still being carried out to determine how many people were living in the homes which were buried. "When you look at the area, definitely, there are chances there are more people that were staying there because this is an incident that happened in the morning," she added.
"Reports from the Red Cross Action Teams (RCATs) indicate that the landslide has smashed a big area, burying hundreds of houses," Ntabadde said. One of those feared missing in Mabono is a 70-year-old man. "The Red Cross Action team has been calling him on his phone with no response. The phone has since gone off," the spokeswoman said.
The heavy rainfall also caused serious flooding in the villages of Bunambutye, Bwikhonge, Nabongo and Muyembe. "All houses in these areas are reported flooding," she said.
In March 2010, around 350 people were killed when a landslide triggered by heavy rain buried hundreds of homes in the district of Bududa in eastern Uganda. It was one of the worst disasters in Uganda in recent years.