Floods Displace 20,000 People in Eastern Uganda: Hundreds Die

This mother lost her husband and son in the landslides on Monday. Stephen Wandera, Daily Monitor.

After a landslide on Monday engulfed 3 villages, killing over a hundred people and leaving many more missing, heavy rains continued in eastern Uganda– displacing over 20,000 people.

The heavy rains flooded 30 villages, killing hundreds and forcing tens of thousands of people to flee to higher, dryer areas– while homes were washed away.

During the landslide earlier in the week, over 50 students were killed when they took refuge from the landslide at a village hospital.  AP reported the story on March 4th.

Meteorologists predict the heavy rains will continue until April, and that more flooding will occur in eastern, central and western Uganda.  Catastrophic flooding occurred in northern and eastern Uganda in 2007, destroying crops and creating the path for the starvation and famine people suffered in 2009.

President Museveni visited the scene by helicopter on Wednesday, saying the lack of roads made it impossible to bring in heavy equipment.  The police, army, and survivors are using hand-held devices like hoes to find bodies in the heavy mud.  No tents or amenities have yet been given to people whose villages were badly hit, and they have been told to relocate to higher ground.  The government said they would be relocated to playgrounds at Bubiita and Bukalasi.

Uganda plans to appeal to the international community for $17 million to help landslide victims resettle and ongoing relief efforts.  The government has released $100,000 currently for short-term relief (sh200million).

On KFM, MP Nandala Mafabi (chairperson of Public Accounts) clashed with the Information Minister, describing the $100,000 as pocket change.  Last year, Parliament allotted sh4 billion for emergencies in the upcoming year.  ”What can sh200 million do, what is the sh4billion we provided for emergency doing?” he asked.

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Tags: Associated Press, Bubiita, Bukalasi, Daily Monitor, emergency funds, flooding Uganda, landslide victims, Landslides Uganda, MP Nandala Mafabi, President Museveni, Ugandan Parliament

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 7:43 am and is filed under More News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.