Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dozens killed in Uganda landslide

A landslide following heavy rains in eastern Uganda has killed more than 40 people.

It is feared that the death toll could rise as a government rescue team reaches the Mount Elgon area.

A river burst its banks and a torrent of mud and water swept villages away. Pictures from the scene show people retrieving bodies from the mud and carrying them away.

A landslide in the same region, Bududa, killed more than 300 people in 2010.

Image copyright EPA Image caption A torrent of mud and water swept houses away

It is a mountainous place with volcanic soils that are rich for agriculture, but it is also densely populated, which puts a lot of pressure on arable land, reports the BBC's Patience Atuhaire in the capital, Kampala.

After previous disasters, people have been told to move away but many return because of the fertility of the land and their attachment to their ancestral home.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The Sume river burst its banks, sending thick sludge and rocks barrelling into homes

The Uganda Red Cross says that 36 bodies have been recovered, but a local official quoted by the Daily Monitor newspaper has said 40 bodies have been found so far.

"When the water flowed down it brought a number of big stones with it that destroyed people's houses," Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita told AFP news agency.

The prime minister's office has sent a team to assist with the search and recovery efforts, which were set to continue on Friday in the difficult hilly terrain.</s>At least 11 people were found dead after a river burst its banks in eastern Uganda Thursday after heavy rains, sending muddy water coursing through a market, a government official said.

"Eleven bodies have been recovered so far but many more are missing, feared dead," in the town of Bukalasi in the Bududa district, Martin Owor, Commissioner for Disaster Preparedness, told AFP.

"We are reaching the peak of the second rainy season and it rained very heavily today."

Earlier the Uganda Red Cross said in a statement that at least seven people had been buried after a "massive landslide" in Bukalasi.

"The preliminary report indicates that the number is likely to increase from the reported seven but we are yet to establish the actual numbers," Uganda Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita said in a statement.

Nakasiita described the situation as tense with "community members... scared and fleeing from their homes."

She shared photos of the scene on WhatsApp, including images of dismembered corpses caked in mud laid out by the river.

Some of the bodies have been partly covered with banana leaves by members of the public.

Owor said however that there was no landslide. "A river which burst its banks in Bukalasi swept through a trading centre," he said.

Bududa district in the foothills of Mount Elgon, which lies on the border between Uganda and Kenya, is a high risk area for landslides.

At least 100 people were reported killed in a landslide in Bududa in March 2010 and in 2012 landslides destroyed three villages.

Government efforts to move vulnerable people to neighbouring districts have faced resistance from residents.</s>At least 41 dead in Uganda landslide

UGANDA: At least 41 people were killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks, sending a torrent of mud and rocks barrelling into homes, disaster officials and survivors said Friday.

Rescue teams continued picking through the rubble late Friday, searching for survivors and victims of the disaster which took place the previous day in the eastern Bududa district.

"41 lives have been lost but they´re still going ahead digging, trying to look for whether there are other bodies in the riverbed somewhere," said Hilary Onek, Uganda´s minister for relief, disaster preparedness and refugees.

"There are casualties up in the hills," he added, referring to higher ground where the river burst its banks before washing away homes lower down.

Onek said 38 bodies had so far been found, as well as dismembered limbs believed to belong to three more individuals.

Survivors spoke of panic and horror as water cascaded down the hillside.

At the hillside Nanyinza village, the Sume river rushed past the ruins of a concrete bridge swept away by the heavy rainfall.

"The moment we saw the water coming we ran and climbed a hill," said John Makimpi a 28-year-old fish trader from Nanyinza who got involved in the ad hoc rescue effort.

"We dragged seven bodies from the river," he said, adding that four of the bodies had been smashed beyond recognition by falling rocks.

Irene Namutosi, 30 and with her legs caked in mud, watched as a solitary mechanical digger struggled to clear huge tree trunks and boulders from the road.

"We found three dead people at one bridge and another three further down the river," she said. "Some didn´t have arms or legs because the water and stones hit them so hard."

Government meteorologist Godfrey Mujuni said it was the River Sume, a tributary of the River Manafwa, that had burst its banks.

"It´s a mountainous region and because of the high altitude and steep slopes even a small amount of rain can trigger landslides. There is no early warning system in that particular area hit yesterday."

"The rains are still coming and the government and NGOs need to keep their preparedness levels high," he warned.

Nathan Tumuhamye, director of an organisation that helps communities recover from natural disasters and conflict, told AFP that "four to five villages" had been affected.

Bududa district in the foothills of Mount Elgon, which lies on the border between Uganda and Kenya, is a high risk area for landslides.

At least 100 people were reported killed in a landslide in Bududa in March 2010, and in 2012 landslides destroyed three villages.

Downriver from Nanyinza, a small crowd gathered round the bodies of a girl and her grandmother, swept away as they returned from a hospital appointment.

Lacking a child´s coffin mourners simply wrapped the body of the five-year-old in a yellow scarf and laid her on a woven sack next to her grandmother´s white coffin.

Relief workers expect to bury more in the days to come.</s>Dozens of people have died in Uganda's mountainous town of Bukalasi, following a massive landslide. Heavy rainfall caused a river to burst its bank, sending mud and rocks which swept away many houses. Many people are still missing.</s>Oct. 12 (UPI) -- At least 41 people have died in mudslides caused by heavy rains in the Bududa district of Uganda, officials said Friday.

Many more people, including children, are believed to still be buried, district chairperson Wilson Watira said, after a river overflowed its banks on Thursday afternoon.

The rushing Tsuume River near eastern Uganda's Mount Elgon sent muddy water coursing through the Naposhi and Nalutungu public markets and washed away everything in its path.

One elementary school was among the buildings flattened by the impact of the water.

Large boulders rolled through the impacted areas after a four-hour rainstorm and "and a landslide up the mountain," Ugandan disaster preparedness commissioner Martin Owor said in a statement.

"It rolled big boulders through a village in Bukalasi sub-county, killing several people."

At least 500 people have been displaced and need shelter and food, local officials said.

"I have received the sad news of landslides wreaking havoc in Bududa district, killing a yet-to-specified number of residents," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said from a conference in London. "The government has dispatched rescue teams to the affected areas. I urge residents to cooperate with authorities to mitigate possible further danger."

Owor said nearby bridges were washed out by the rains, hampering recovery efforts.

A federal government disaster team, local police and the Red Cross are aiding survivors.</s>At least 34 people have been killed by mudslides and falling boulders in Uganda, triggered by heavy rain.

The landslide swept debris through a town in eastern Uganda, destroying homes and burying livestock, a government official said today.

Torrential floodwaters followed heavy rains which struck Bukalasi, on the slopes of Mount Elgon, yesterday afternoon.

A picture tweeted by Uganda Red Cross showed uprooted and twisted trees, with the aid agency adding that both 'animals and people were swept away in this disaster'.

Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita said today that more victims are likely to be discovered when rescue teams access all the affected areas in the foothills of Mountain Elgon.

She said people were killed by boulders and chunks of mud rolling down hills following a sustained period of heavy rain on Thursday afternoon in the district of Bududa.

Martin Owor, the Commissioner for Disaster Preparedness and Management, said relief teams were combing the area to search and rescue survivors.

He added: 'Most of the people were caught at the market, the landslide pushed huge boulders into a river which burst its banks and the water swept away the people.

'There are people who were displaced and they need shelter, food and all other support and we're moving that relief to the area.'

The mountainous area of eastern Uganda is prone to similar disasters - in March 2010 at least 100 people died in similar mudslides in Bududa.

Efforts by Uganda's government over the years to relocate people have not succeeded.

The rainy season in that part of Uganda, about 155 miles (250 km) from the capital Kampala and close to the Kenyan border, runs from September to December.

An avalanche in the same area in 2010 killed at least 80 people.

Large swaths on the slopes of Ugandan mountains have been stripped of their forests and other vegetation cover for cultivable land, increasing the risk of landslides.

Officials have previously said there were plans to move people away from some of the most vulnerable areas, but those relocations have yet to be carried out.

Many of the East African country's mountainous regions, also including areas in the southwest and west near the borders with Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo, often experience landslides at this time of the year if rains are unusually heavy.</s>At least 31 people have been killed when a landslide rolled down the slopes of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda, wrecking homes and burying animals.

Martin Owor, Commissioner for Disaster Preparedness and Management, said the landslide tumbled onto a small town on the mountain’s slopes on Thursday afternoon.

“Most of the people were caught at the trading centre, the landslide pushed huge boulders into a river which burst its banks and the water swept away the people,” Owor added.

“Many more are missing, feared dead, we are reaching the peak of the second rainy season and it rained very heavily today,” he added.

The area, about 250km from the capital, Kampala, is close to the border with Kenya and is prone to landslides.

Relief teams are now combing the area to search and rescue survivors, Owor said.

“There are people who were displaced and they need shelter, food and all other support and we’re moving that relief to the area.”

Some of the bodies were partly covered with banana leaves by people present at the site.

At least 100 people were killed in a landslide in Bududa in March 2010. In 2012, landslides destroyed three villages in the region.

The government’s efforts to move vulnerable people to neighbouring districts have faced resistance from residents.</s>A landslide following heavy rains in eastern Uganda has killed more than 30 people.

It is feared that the death toll could rise as a government rescue team reaches the Mount Elgon area.

A river burst its banks and a torrent of mud and water swept villages away. Pictures from the scene show people retrieving bodies from the mud and carrying them away.

A landslide in the same region, Bududa, killed more than 300 people in 2010.
• Africa Live: Updates on this and other stories
• Why would you move back after a landslide?

It is a mountainous place with volcanic soils that are rich for agriculture, but it is also densely populated, which puts a lot of pressure on arable land, reports the BBC's Patience Atuhaire in the capital, Kampala.

After previous disasters, people have been told to move away but many return because of the fertility of the land and their attachment to their ancestral home.

The Uganda Red Cross says that 36 bodies have been recovered, but a local official quoted by the Daily Monitor newspaper has said 40 bodies have been found so far.

"When the water flowed down it brought a number of big stones with it that destroyed people's houses," Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita told AFP news agency.

The prime minister's office has sent a team to assist with the search and recovery efforts, which were set to continue on Friday in the difficult hilly terrain.</s>At least 34 people were killed after a river in eastern Uganda burst its banks, sending thick sludge and rocks barrelling into homes, disaster officials said Friday.

Rescue teams were picking through the rubble, looking for survivors and victims of the disaster which took place on Thursday in the town of Bukalasi in the Bududa district. An unknown number of people were still missing.

“I can confirm 34 people are dead. We have to wait for our assessment to be completed before we can say how many are missing,” said Uganda Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita.

On Thursday she shared photos on WhatsApp of the scene of what she described as a “massive landslide“, including images of dismembered corpses caked in mud laid out by the river. Some of the bodies had been partly covered with banana leaves by members of the public.

“The cause was the river bursting its banks upstream following heavy rain. When the water flowed down it brought a number of big stones with it that destroyed people’s houses,” Nakasiita said.</s>DOZENS of people have been killed in Uganda after the African country was battered by heavy rain.
At least 41 people are killed after a river bursts its bank in Bududa, Uganda. Many more are injured and dozens are displaced.