Death toll in Uganda landslides rises to 20 as search continues

(AFRICA NEWS) – More bodies buried under the mud were retrieved in eastern Uganda on Friday and an injured person died in a hospital, bringing the death toll from this week’s landslides to 20, officials said as search efforts pressed on in the stricken area.

Heavy rains had triggered the landslides that engulfed six villages in the mountainous district of Bulambuli, 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on Wednesday night. Some 125 houses were destroyed.

The Uganda Red Cross Society spokesperson Irene Kasiita told reporters that bodies of four more people were found on Friday while a fifth person, one of the injured in the landslides, died at Mbale Hospital.