Army Uganda will create rapid response brigade for civil and military emergency operations 0308121.

Maj. Gen. Julius Oketta, Director of the National Emergency Coordination Operation Center at the Office of the Prime Minister was quoted by the state owned New Vision daily as saying that the brigade will consist of 4,000 personnel drawn from various military units.

"The rapid response force will comprise of medical teams, engineers, specialized search, rescue and evacuation teams plus logistics teams that will be always ready to handle disasters in any part of the country," he said.

The brigade formation follows various deadly landslides in mountainous areas in eastern Uganda, where rescue efforts were hampered by lack of well prepared and equipped personnel to handle such situations.

"On the two occasions in 2010 and this year when landslides occurred in Bududa district, the army working with police and community members had to use ineffective tools like hand hoes and spades to excavate bodies buried by mounds of soil," said Oketta.

The landslides in June struck the eastern Ugandan district of Bududa, killing at least 18 people, resurrecting memories of the March 2010 and August 2011 landslides in the same district that left over 250 people dead and hundreds displaced.