80 die as mudslide hits villages

SOLDIERS and villagers in eastern Uganda hacked at mounds of thick mud with picks and hoes yesterday in a desperate effort to find more survivors from a landslide that killed at least 80 people.

Waves of mud and rocks swept down a steep mountainside late on Monday night after seven hours of rain, engulfing the village of Nametsi, burying houses, people and livestock.

Villagers tentatively lifted blankets to see if the dead beneath were relatives and an old lady sobbed over her husband's body.

Some carried away corpses on makeshift stretchers and others stood and gazed at the swathe of mud hundreds of metres wide that ploughed through the village and surrounding banana fields.

The government said three villages with more than 3,000 residents were badly hit and mudslides were feared in five other districts experiencing continual heavy rain.

The hamlets cling to isolated mountainsides with no proper road access, making rescue efforts difficult. It is a two-hour trek from the main road to Nametsi, making it very difficult to get earth moving equipment there.

Tarsis Kabwegyere, the minister for disaster preparedness and refugees, said that 80 bodies had been recovered, but hundreds more people were missing.

A local leader in the area said president Yoweri Museveni had ordered the resettlement into temporary camps of some 2,000 people still living under the threat of mudslides on the foothills of Mt Elgon.

The army has set up an emergency medical base in the area.