The day started with the hope that the missing people or at least their bodies would be recovered. It was feared that the death toll would rise as hopes of survival for the missing victims started to fade. The ten were buried by a mudslide that hit Bulusabe and Bulusanja in Bufuba parish Masaba sub-county in Sironko district. One of the bodies had so far been retrieved while the remaining nine remained covered under the heavy mass of soil and stones. Reports from residents revealed that some victims were fetching water from a spring, others were in the gardens while the others were in the homes. The landslide followed a heavy downpour that lasted over two hours from 4 pm on Monday.

“15 cows dead, so far we have recovered one dead body, we are still searching for nine which we don’t expect to get because of too much soil that has hit them and mixed with stones.” Bufuba parish in Masaba Sub-county and part of neighboring Zesui and Bukinyale Sub-counties had been earmarked as black spots by experts from the Prime Minister’s office. “Unfortunately this has happened when the program from the Ministry has not started but we had alerted our people that the area you are in is highly at risk. And we have been holding meetings and we are still holding meetings even now we are telling people not to stay where the incident occurred.”

By the time the incident occurred, the Prime Minister’s office was in the process of verifying compiled lists before making final arrangements to relocate the people to safer areas. Local leaders asked people to move to relatives in safer places but some people still had reservations. “They are also fearing to be transferred that we may be taken to places with drought or if not, it might be very difficult for us to get adopted to the conditions where we are going to be transferred to.” Twenty people remained displaced because their houses were destroyed by the mudslides.