Uganda Mudslide Buries at Least 15 Houses
A mudslide buried at least 15 houses Monday when it tore through two hamlets in eastern Uganda following heavy rains, the Red Cross said.
"We know that at least 15 houses have been buried but we do not know how many people were inside them," Red Cross spokeswoman Catherine Ntabadde said.
She said emergency teams were trawling the site to try to establish the number of people killed in the slide but that local authorities estimate around 80 people live in each hamlet.
Nine people have been taken to a nearby hospital with injuries, Ntabadde said.
The landslide ripped through the villages of Namaga and Bunakasala in the mountainous Bududa district close to the border with Kenya early on Monday afternoon.
In March 2010, a mudslide in the same region is estimated to have killed some 300 people.
After that incident the Ugandan authorities said they would resettle around half a million people living in mountainous areas to lessen the risk of mudslides.
Source: Agence France Presse
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