At least seven bodies have been recovered after landslides swept through several villages in eastern Uganda.
The landslides in Bududa and Sironko districts in the Mt Elgon region near the border with Kenya were triggered by a heavy downpour on Tuesday.
Rescuers recovered the bodies by digging through the debris with hand hoes.
Residents, however, fear that more people might have been trapped in the rubble.
“We cannot do much with hand hoes. The government should come in and search for our missing relatives, whom we are sure are buried in the rubble,” said one David Wafula, a survivor in Namasa Village.
“We are tired of losing relatives due to the disasters. We want to leave but we have nowhere to go,” he added.
Fred Gando, the executive director of Support Transformation Effort Programme, a non-governmental organisation, blamed the disasters on human activities such as deforestation, degradation of wetlands and poor farming methods.
“River banks are bursting because they have been encroached on and government is not able to direct what is supposed to be done because of corruption,” said Mr Gando.
Mr Gando added that disasters could increase as people continue to ignore interventions needed to address climate change.
By The Eastafrica
