KAMPALA: More bodies buried under the mud were retrieved in eastern Uganda on Friday and an injured person died in a hospital, bringing the death toll from this week’s landslides to 20, officials said as search efforts pressed on in the stricken area.
Heavy rains had triggered the landslides that engulfed six villages in the mountainous district of Bulambuli, 280 kilometers (175 miles) east of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, on Wednesday night. Some 125 houses were destroyed.
The Uganda Red Cross Society spokesperson Irene Kasiita told reporters that bodies of four more people were found on Friday while a fifth person, one of the injured in the landslides, died at Mbale Hospital.
The society in a statement said 750 people had been displaced, with 216 of those living temporarily at a neighboring school while others were being housed by relatives.
The Bulambuli Resident District Commissioner Faheera Mpalanyi said soldiers have been deployed to help with the digging.
“More bodies are still buried under the heaps of soils and stones and we are trying as much as we can to recover them,” she said.
Local officials told a journalist in the area on Thursday that an excavator would be brought to assist in the rescue efforts, but the roads were covered in mud and rain was still falling. The impacted area is about 50 acres with homesteads and farmlands spread downhill.
Lawmaker Irene Muloni from the Bulambuli district said Thursday the government would help relocate residents from the landslide-prone area.
“Waterfalls are everywhere, and the rainfall is excessive,” she said, urging everyone who had lost their home to seek refuge with relatives and “leave this dangerous place.”
Death toll in Uganda landslides rises to 20 as search for more casualties presses on
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Death toll in Uganda landslides rises to 20 as search for more casualties presses on
- The Uganda Red Cross Society spokesperson Irene Kasiita told reporters that bodies of four more people were found on Friday while a fifth person, died at Mbale Hospital
- Soldiers have been deployed to help with the digging
Russia’s Kaliningrad puts on brave face as isolation bites
- The Baltic states surrounding Kaliningrad, all NATO members, have been some of Ukraine’s staunchest backers since Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022
KALININGRAD: Standing in the center of rainy Kaliningrad, the isolated Russian exclave surrounded by NATO countries, Russian factory worker Alexander felt confident.
Economically hit by being cut-off from its EU neighbors and physically isolated from the rest of Russia, officials and locals are putting on a brave face amid claims they are under siege from neighbors Poland and Lithuania.
The Baltic states surrounding Kaliningrad, all NATO members, have been some of Ukraine’s staunchest backers since Moscow launched its offensive in February 2022.
Poland and Lithuania “want to show off, display their strength, reinforce their borders,” said Alexander, 25, who did not give his surname.
But his city is “certainly not one that surrenders,” he added, taking pride that Russia had far more weapons than its smaller neighbors.
His defiance echoes the Kremlin’s relentless criticism of NATO.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has for years accused the military alliance of breaking an apparent promise not to expand eastwards.
In June, he said Russians had been “tricked, duped on the subject of NATO’s non-expansion.”
Ukraine and the West reject that narrative as a pretext advanced by Putin to justify the offensive, which has become Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.
In Russia’s neighbors, the intensity of the confrontation is palpable.
Poland and Lithuania, which have a land border with Kaliningrad, have virtually closed their borders for Russians, bar limited exceptions.
In recent weeks, Estonia and Lithuania have reported Russian jets violating their airspace.
And Poland’s new president Karol Nawrocki said he believed Russia was “ready to hit at other countries” after NATO scrambled jets to shoot down Russian drones flying through Polish airspace.
‘Let them bark’
Kaliningrad — a previously German city called Konigsberg until it became Soviet after WWII — is strategic for Moscow.
It is home to Russia’s Baltic Fleet, as well as Iskander ballistic missiles, the same kind that Moscow regularly fires on Ukraine.
The region’s governor did not respond to an AFP request for an interview.
The Kremlin’s hard-line messages run deep with many.
Marina, a 63 year-old who works in a clothes shop, mocked the region’s EU neighbors, saying they should focus on their own problems.
“Let them bark,” she said. “I am 100 percent protected in Kaliningrad. I am not scared of NATO.”
Showing Russian tourists round the tomb of philosopher Immanuel Kant, guide Anna Dmitrik was relieved that Kaliningrad had not been targeted by the Ukrainian retaliatory drone attacks that have hit many other regions.
“It’s calm here. We are not scared for now,” she said, adding: “I don’t know what will happen next.”
Still, reminders of the war are everywhere.
Banners encouraged men to sign up to fight in Ukraine for Russia’s “victorious army.” Giant Zs — the symbol of Moscow’s forces in Ukraine — decorated buildings.
‘Life was better then’
But behind the defiance, Kaliningrad’s locals struggled with the feeling of being more isolated, and worse off, than before February 2022.
Banned from EU airspace, planes connecting the exclave to the rest of Russia must take a long detour northwards via the Gulf of Finland.
A train linking it to Moscow is physically sealed as it crosses Lithuania, with Russian passengers requiring a visa or transit permit to board.
And Vilnius has closed its border with key Russian ally Belarus for at least a month over the intrusion of balloons carrying thousands of illegal cigarettes into the EU state.
Before “you could go to Poland to shop or just take a walk. Buses and trucks were running,” said mechanic Vitaly Tsypliankov, 48.
“Life was better then,” he added.
“Now everything is closed. Everything is more expensive, absolutely everything has become costlier.”
Inflation has surged across Russia amid the Ukraine offensive, but complicated logistics hit Kaliningrad especially hard.
While Poland’s border is technically open, only Russians with EU residency can enter. Traffic into the country has virtually stopped.
Most petrol stations near the border are empty if not shut down.
The giant Baltia shopping mall, on the road to the airport, is sparsely frequented.
“Kaliningrad’s economic situation is very bad,” said Irina, a saleswoman there.
“Logistics are very complicated to bring in products from (the rest of) Russia,” she said, puffing on a cigarette.
“Everything is more expensive.”
