By Henry Mukasa and Paul Watala in Bududa

President Yoweri Museveni yesterday flew into the disaster struck Bududa district to commiserate with the distraught residents.

A landslide buried three villages on the slopes of Mt. Elgon. By yesterday, at least 81 bodies had been recovered. Rescuers including officials from the Uganda Red Cross put the figure of the missing persons at 350.

A cloud of gloom hovered over the area. Hundreds of residents are still buried under the ground. The mountainous Bududa is one of the most densely populated districts of Uganda with a population density of 1,059 people living in every kilometre against a national average of 161.

“Sorry for the disaster that struck you,” said Museveni, who was dressed in military uniform and carrying an AK47 rifle.

He laid a wreath at a spot where people are still buried. The Police helicopter in which Museveni travelled landed at Nametsi secondary school at 11:00am.

The President, who was received by the Bududa district chairman, John Watira, waded in the mud to address the residents.

“God made these hills for a purpose. If man misuses the hills such catastrophes happen and life if lost,” Museveni pointed out.

He promised to return to Bukalasi to discuss with residents how best to use the highlands without causing such deaths.

The President assured the residents that the Government would support them in their helpless situation. He promised that the Government would provide food and burial requirements.

“We shall help you in all ways. All children from this area will receive government support for a full year,” the President stated.

He told people in areas that are susceptible to similar landslides to relocate to Bukalasi and Bulucheke, where it is safer and where relief will be directed.

On the on-going rescue operation, Museveni directed “the soldiers must dig up the bodies.”

Museveni talked to some survivors and the bereaved before flying to Bukalasi Secondary School where the evacuated people are camping.

He attended the burial of a child victim and consoled the residents.

District chairman Watira said the area leaders were happy with the Government intervention so far.

UPDF heads rescue
The 3rd Division commander, Brig. Patrick Kankiriho, is overseeing the operation to help residents dig up bodies. “Our role is to evacuate casualties, evacuate the trapped and exhume the buried bodies,” Kankiriho said as several soldiers with new hoes and spades got to work.

The commander observed that while there was capacity to deploy earth-moving equipment, the terrain which makes the area inaccessible by road, made it impossible.

Asked whether he would appeal for more donor and external aid, Kankiriho quipped: “Anybody willing to help is welcome.”

“This is a disaster. No one expected it. People say they heard a loud bang and that was it,” he stated.

Hundreds visit scene
Yesterday morning the hitherto little known parish of Nametsi had turned into a place of pilgrimage. Hundreds of people streamed to the scene.

Elderly women, youth, school children and officials from neighbouring areas streamed to the place, trekking several miles in the winding slippery paths. They were overcome by the magnitude of the disaster.

A large curious crowd stood on the rocks rolled down the valley by the landslide assessing the catastrophe while crestfallen bereaved family members wailed and looked into the distant future for answers.

A couple of family members stood by their relatives corpses wrapped in various clothing.

The inquisitive visitors gazed at the flattened ground and many muttered inaudible words perhaps wondering at the vengeance with which the landslide pounced on the villages.

At an elevation of 800 metres, a huge trail left by the landslide was visible, dotted with huge rocks and trunks of trees.

The only evidence that this area measuring several hectares was once a parish are a few mangled pieces of iron sheets, onions to indicate a former grocery, and pieces of paper from exercise books perhaps from the buried school children.

The entire stretch can be mistaken for a freshly ploughed piece of land, without grass or weeds, ready for planting.

In between the wide path followed by the mudslide, drenched soil betraying the torrential rainfall on the fateful day was evident.

It was smoothened by the alluvial soils and silt that came after the rains receded.

Desperate bereaved families dug with hand hoes at spots where they suspect their relatives and friends once lived.

However, the strength of the landslide had complicated their work because it had moved all the houses and properties in its path. Elderly women wailed uncontrollably and were joined by other residents.

Despite this, some men and women with unkempt hair sipped local gin.

Many residents who survived and from the neighbouring villages stood or sat inconsolable.

Regional Police commander Joel Aguma said relatives were taking their dead for burial.

He said most relatives know where their kindred lived and because bodies were not battered beyond recognition it was easy to identify them.

Aguma would not say when the operation will end. “You don’t know what is down in the ground.” “The more it rains, the more threat from the hanging rocks,” he explained.

He, however, noted that almost all the people in the nearby areas had been evacuated to Bukalasi.

He said the only people yet to be relocated were those who were cut off higher up the mountain after their improvised bridges were swept away.

At Bukalasi, Aguma elaborated, there are 39 children, most of them now orphaned, and 22 adults. World Vision has promised blankets to children.

At six O’clock, the Uganda Red Cross team leader for eastern region, Kevin Nabutuwa, said six more bodies of school children had been retrieved.

Heavy rains in the afternoon hampered the search for bodies.

After the 1997 landslide, the then state minister for Northern Uganda requested officials from Bududa district to identify nine square miles of land for resettlement of the people affected. He said the Government would pay for the land anywhere in Uganda for the affected.