Four people have reportedly been killed after a mudslide hit the mountainous district of Sironko on Monday. Sironko Resident District Commissioner, Moses Wamoto Kigai says the victims were residents of Masaba Village in Masaba Sub-county. He says several people are still missing and that a rescue team has been sent to the area.
But Elgon Region Police Spokesperson Suwedi Mansour said one person was reportedly killed while ten others are missing. This comes a day after a landslide destroyed three villages in Bulucheke Sub County in Bududa district. According to local leaders and security officials, houses were knocked down, livestock buried and at least 200 people from 40 families were displaced.
The affected villages are Marobo and Shikhuyu in Buluchecke Sub-county and Nabutsasi in Bumayoka Sub-county. A mapping survey done by the geo-technical in the department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Climatic Science at Makerere University in 2015, found that a fresh 40km-crack on the slopes of Mt Elgon had developed and warned of looming landslides.
In 2010, landslides flattened villages in Nametsi Parish, burying an estimated 350 residents.
In 2011 a mudslide in Bulambuli killed about 28 people.
