Uganda Heavy rain kills 17 children, one adult As flood wreaks havoc in South Africa killing 50

Abiodun OBA

Heavy rains have hit eastern Uganda destroying homes and crops leaving 17 children and one adult dead.

“Now 18 people confirmed dead,” all but one of them children, in the village of Bulembo in the eastern district of Buyende, said Irene Nakasiita, the Red Cross spokeswoman.

“Many buildings are blown away, others de-roofed, crops destroyed,” she said.

“Teams on the ground couldn’t complete the assessment due to another heavy downpour in the same communities.”

Others gave different death tolls from the fierce weather. Ugandan police said there were 13 deaths in the village.

But Buyende district chairman William Kiiza said up to 30 people were feared dead.

“We suspect between 20 to 30 people to have died in the heavy rainstorm as some were hit by debris and collapsing walls,” Kiiza was quoted as saying by the local media.

“There are bodies under collapsed structures, some families talk of loved ones missing,” he added.

Uganda has two long rainy seasons, one from March to May and again between September and December.

Elsewhere in southern and eastern parts of South Africa , no fewer than 50 people were killed after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides, authorities said on Wednesday.

Rescue workers were digging through collapsed homes and other buildings in coastal areas of KwaZulu-Natal province, where the death toll stood at 51, local officials said.

The region has been hit by heavy rains for days, but authorities did not anticipate the extent of the downpour late on Monday, said Lennox Mabaso, a spokesman for the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department.

“As a result there was flooding and some structures were undermined and collapsed on people,” Mabaso said, adding some people were swept away by the water.

Multiple dwellings and houses collapsed in the mudslides, said KwaZulu-Natal Emergency Medical Services spokesman Robert McKenzie.

Some major roads in and around the port city of Durban were closed on Wednesday, local media reported.

Flooding also killed at least three people in the Eastern Cape Province, state broadcaster SABC said on Wednesday.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will visit communities in both provinces, his office said on Wednesday.

It will be recalled that only last week, 13 people were killed during an Easter service in KwaZulu-Natal when a church wall collapsed after days of heavy rains and strong winds.