afrol News, 4 March - The Red Cross in Uganda has made an appeal to aid the survivors of the mudslides which swept away three villages in rural Uganda, killing 80 people.

The relief teams have reportedly begun their rescue effort in a remote region of eastern Uganda, three days after a landslide. Over 300 people are still reported missing.

The Red Cross said it needs shelters, blankets and psychological support.

In one village, eyewitnesses said schoolchildren took shelter in a health centre later engulfed by the mud.

Rescue workers from the Red Cross and local officials in Bududa, the village nearest to the rural community buried under the mud on the slopes of Mount Elgon, complained Wednesday that driving in the rain and the steep terrain made the relief efforts slow and complicated.

Armed with spades and rudimentary farming tools, people dug through the night in a desperate attempt to find survivors but not a single body was retrieved from the mudslide since Wednesday morning.

The region, about 275km (170 miles) north-east of the capital Kampala, often suffers from landslides but this is an unusually high death toll, according to local media reports.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni visited the site of the landslide near the Kenyan border on Wednesday as foreign countries extended their condolences over one of the worst natural disasters to strike the east African nation in years.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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