BUDUDA (Uganda), Kurrent News: Rescuers clawed through mud in driving rain on Wednesday in a desperate bid to find survivors from a huge landslide feared to have killed hundreds in villages in eastern Uganda. At least 80 bodies have already been found on the slopes of Mount Elgon and at least 300 people are missing in the villages.
More torrential rain fell as rescuers dug through the mud with spades and simple tools as mechanical diggers could not get up the slopes. Army helicopters flew up medical supplies to treat the injured.
Regional army spokesman Captain Henry Obbo said the steep terrain was making recovery efforts difficult.
“We are having trouble because of the very big rubble. The terrain is really so, so unfriendly,” he told AFP.” It is the local people and us (the army). We are trying all that we can.”
After days of heavy rain, the mudslide engulfed the villages near the Uganda-Kenya border late Monday. Olyamboka Sam was praying when the disaster struck.
“I was in the church when I saw the landslide coming carrying stones and trees. Everyone was running from the church,” said Sam, who was being treated for a fractured arm at a hospital in Bududa, the nearest town.
The 24-year-old man told how he saw two women, two children and a man carried away to their deaths.
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