At least 15 people have been confirmed dead following land slides occasioned by a heavy downpour in Kasese District early Wednesday, September 06 morning, the Uganda Red Cross Society has said.
Uganda Red Cross Society said the landslides happened in Kasika village, kigoro parish in Rukoki Subcount in Kasese District.
“We received a land slide alert that came in at around 4am from Kasese, Rukoki Sub-County, Kasika Village. A few households are feared buried and some people said to be missing. We dispatched a response team to support the affected families,” said the humanitarian organization in a statement.
Red Cross Society response action teams together with local authorities and community responders then undertook the tasking to search for missing bodies and rescue the people who were still alive.
The rescued people were rushed to St Paul’s Hospital in Kasese Municipality.
As search and rescue continues continued, the death toll kept rising.
Uganda Red Cross Society said most of the people confirmed dead were children and mothers.
At about 10:30am, the humanitarian organization had put the death toll at 15. But more people were still trapped and rescue efforts were ongoing.
This is not the first time that landslides and other disasters are hitting Kasese District. In 2020, at least eight people lost their lives when floods and mudslides hit the area.
