Three people have confirmed dead as hundreds are displaced following a major landslide in Uganda following heavy rain in Buwali and Bukalasi sub-countries in Bududa District.
The landslides occurred at about 11:30 pm on Tuesday after four hours of rain that started pounding the area at about 7 pm.
Landslides generally happen after periods of heavy rain, saturating or liquefying soil and causing slippage. They are more likely to occur if the soil is laid bare by deforestation or urban planning.
Ms. Esther Nashuwu, a survivor and mother of the girl told Daily Monitor her daughter died after their house collapsed.
“I heard noise from the hill and I ran out of the house to find out what was happening. Within seconds, the rolling mud had covered the house and I could not save my daughter,” she said.
Mr. Samson Wambete, a resident of Bukobero and a local leader, said they cannot establish the exact number of people who have been killed or the number of houses destroyed.
He, however, said several people are missing.
“We are in shock and helpless because apart from the lives lost, several houses, animals, and crops have been washed away,” he said.
Mr. Julius Mucunguzi, a communications advisor in the Office of the Prime Minister said via social media that a team from the Disaster Preparedness and Management Department has been sent to the area to establish the facts.
Over 4,000 people have died in similar incidents over the past 10 years and millions of dollars of resources are lost because of them each year in Africa, according to Ogbonnaya Igwe, a senior lecturer at the University of Nigeria, who studies landslides.
“Triggered by intense rainfall, changes in water level and anthropogenic activities, it is very difficult … to overestimate their threat to public safety and the environment,” Igwe said in a report.
Predicting a landslide is difficult. Sometimes a slow slippage or fissures in the ground offer a sign of what is to come. Mostly though they happen without warning.
Heavy rain that saturates the soil – an increasing worry as climate change brings more extreme rainfall – is often to blame
Kenya’s Red Cross estimates at least 100 have also died in the downpours since early April this year, a humanitarian disaster that it says needs emergency funding.