Uganda mudslides kill nine, including six from one family

At least nine people, including six members of a single family, have been confirmed dead after landslides struck Bukwo and Kween districts in eastern Uganda following heavy overnight rains earlier this week.

Local officials said the disaster occurred late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning (October 31), when torrential rain triggered mudslides that buried several homes in the Sebei sub-region. Three children were killed in Bukwo District’s Nyalit Parish, while six others died in neighbouring Kween District.

Local chief Judith Chelangat, who was among the first responders, said she received a distress call around 3 a.m. “I was told, ‘Chief, you are sleeping! All the people of Kaptang village, almost all of them are dead. Just wake up and come for rescue.’ Immediately, I woke my husband and we hurried to the scene,” she said.

Chelangat described the devastation as overwhelming. “You could hear the people, the woman was alarming, but there was no way we could reach and rescue them. By the time we managed to get there around 5 a.m., everyone inside the house was already dead. In the next household, two people survived because they managed to run out,” she said.

Uganda Red Cross officials joined residents in digging through the thick mud to retrieve bodies and belongings. “We found the mud was all over the place — there was no house seen,” said Moses Checho, a Red Cross official. “After a long struggle, we managed to recover the bodies. Three households were affected, six people died, and four others were severely injured and are now in hospital.”

The landslides also disrupted transport along the Kapchorwa–Suam road, where the SIT Bridge was buried under debris carried by floodwaters. Continuous rainfall and poor road conditions have made it difficult for emergency teams to access remote areas.

Rescue operations continued Friday as local authorities, the Uganda Red Cross, and community members worked together to recover missing residents and assist displaced families. Drone footage from Kaptang village showed vast areas of farmland buried under mud, with only traces of homes visible amid the devastation.

The disaster highlights the growing vulnerability of Uganda’s mountainous regions to climate-induced landslides, which have become more frequent in recent years due to deforestation and heavier rainfall.

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