Ugandan landslide fears force relocation of 5,000 households

KAMPALA: Uganda will relocate more than 5,000 households in landslide-hit east Uganda as a massive fissure threatens to trigger another deadly disaster, the government said on Sunday.

Collapsed mountainsides after heavy rains in late November killed at least 36 people in the Bulambuli district, officials say, with scores still missing feared dead and five villages ravaged by the mud.

Since then, the government has sounded the alarm over the prospect of another catastrophe after the appearance of “a huge crack on land in the mountains covering about 70 km,” the state minister for relief and disaster preparedness, Lillian Aber told AFP on Sunday.

“This is enough of a trigger for the population to evacuate immediately and not wait for a forceful evacuation,” Aber said.

“We can’t wait for a disaster to happen,” the minister added.

The Ugandan government has set out a two-week timeframe for residents to evacuate before the authorities will step in to force them to leave, she said.

All evacuees would be given “a resettlement package of cash and land,” the minister said.

Aber said that the evacuation order affected the mountainous districts of Bulambuli, Mbale, Sironko, Kapchorwa, Kween, Bukwo and Bududa.

Recent rainy seasons in East Africa have been more violent than normal, with the El Nino weather phenomenon intensifying the downpours.

At least two people died in Uganda in the previous rainy season, between March and May.

In neighbouring Kenya, the wet weather left at least 228 people dead, 72 missing and more than 200,000 displaced in the same period, according to official figures.

In Feb 2010, eastern Uganda suffered one of the most devastating landslides in the country’s history, killing more than 350 people in the Bududa district at the foot of Mount Elgon.