Fourteen more bodies have been recovered and many are still missing following the heavy rains that swept away homes and blocked roads in the Western Uganda district of Bundibugyo, reports said on Monday.
Rescue teams in Bundibugyo District have so far retrieved 16 bodies that had been covered underground following floods that hit the district over the weekend following heavy rains that hit the area since Friday.
The teams lead by Uganda Red Cross Society, say many people are still unaccounted for, raising the prospect of the death toll going up.
Uganda’s State minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Musa Echweru says the flash floods swept over 11 sub counties.
Hundreds have been displaced and are currently housed in schools and nearby churches after about 30 houses were reduced to rubble and property buried in the mud.
Several hectares of crops were also washed away.
Vincent Muhindo, of the Uganda Red Cross Bundibugyo Branch, says that the organization is still assessing the damage caused by the floods and the number of people affected.
He, however, says that provisional assessment carried out by Red Cross in the affected areas indicates that more than 700 families lost houses and crops in the mudslides.
Continuous rains in Uganda have caused destructive flooding in several low lying parts of the country and landslides in the Mountainous parts of the Country.
Destructive wind and hailstorms have ravaged plantations and crops across the whole country.
This heavy unusual rainfall followed a near daily rainfall for the past three Months of November, September and August.
It has caused multiple landslides and death in several other villages of Eastern Uganda district of Bududa district killing 4 people, injuring 5 and displacing over 6,000 people.
Uganda government has sent out warning messages urging the population to keep away from river banks, and steep slopes.
According to the Disaster Preparedness minister Musa Echweru Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) will be conducted in January 2020 to determine total level of damage and losses and actions for the Recovery and Reconstruction.
CN/ /APA