“Unfortunately, 113 people are still missing, but efforts are under way to locate them,” it said.
The statement said five villages – Masugu, Namachele, Natola, Namagugu and Tagalu – had been affected.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja told NBS television they “believe” all the missing were presumed dead.
“We are trying to exhume the bodies of those missing people,” she said, adding that at least 19 people had been injured, two of them in critical condition.
District commissioner Faheera Mpalanyi said on Thursday that six bodies, including a baby, had been recovered so far from Masugu village.
“Given the devastation and the size of the area affected and from what the affected families are telling us, several people are missing and probably buried in the debris,” she said.
Ugandan Red Cross spokeswoman Irene Nakasiita said on X that 15 bodies had been recovered, including seven children.
About 45 homes had been “completely buried”, she said.
Police said rescue operations were being hindered by impassable roads, blocking ambulances and rescue vehicles from reaching the scene.
A Uganda Red Cross video showed a huddle of people desperately digging through earth as women wailed in the background.
About 500 soldiers had been deployed to help with the rescue, but only 120 had managed to reach the villages, Nabbanja said.
The scale of the multiple landslides was unclear.
Videos and photographs shared on social media purported to show people digging for survivors in Kimono village, also in the Bulambuli district.
The Ugandan Prime Minister’s office issued an alert, writing on X: “Heavy rains on Wednesday in parts of Uganda have led to disaster situations in many areas.”
The rain caused flooding in the northwest after a tributary of the Nile River burst its banks.
Emergency teams were deployed to rescue stranded motorists.
A major road connecting the country with South Sudan was obstructed on Wednesday, with emergency boat crews deployed near the town of Pakwach.
“Unfortunately, one of the boats capsized, resulting in the death of one engineer,” Uganda’s defence forces said on X.
The deadliest landslide in Africa ravaged Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown in August 2017, when 1141 people perished.
Mudslides in the Mt Elgon region of eastern Uganda killed more than 350 people in February 2010.
This year, more than 30 people died in Kampala after a massive rubbish landslide.
- Agence France-Presse
