/ 4 March 2010

Rescue teams begin work on Uganda landslide site

United Nations relief teams were on Thursday to begin their rescue effort in a remote region of eastern Uganda, three days after a landslide left 80 dead and 300 missing.

“Definitely we will be able to begin work on the ground today. We will certainly be working with the government, and the military,” Theophane Nikyema, resident coordinator for the UN’s Uganda team, said.

“Unfortunately, the team that went to Bududa yesterday [Wednesday] was unable to reach the site because of rain, but they should be able to access it today,” he said.

Rescue workers from the Red Cross and local officials in Bududa, the village nearest to the rural community buried under the mud on the slopes of Mount Elgon, complained on Wednesday that driving rain and steep terrain made the relief effort slow and complicated.

Armed with spades and rudimentary farming tools, survivors dug through the night in a desperate attempt to find survivors, but not a single body was retrieved from the mudslide since Wednesday morning.

“We are digging continuously. People were digging even through the night because some relatives can’t sleep. They are just grieving,” Geofrey Natubu, vice-chairperson of Bududa district, said early on Thursday.

He said that 35 schoolchildren were believed to be among the missing.

“We estimate, according to the registry, that about 35 students are buried there. We can’t say for certain. But those ones who are missing are the ones we believe are buried,” Natubu said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni visited the site of the landslide near the Kenyan border on Wednesday as foreign countries extended their condolences over one of the worst natural disasters to strike the East African nation in years. — AFP