16 dead, over 250 hurt as strong quake rocks Tanzania, neighboring nations

At least 16 people died and 253 were injured in a
magnitude-5.7 earthquake that struck northwest
Tanzania and was felt throughout the Great Lakes
region, local authorities said Sunday.
As rescuers scrambled to find survivors from
Saturday’s quake, Tanzanian Prime Minister
Kassim Majaliwa headed to the worst-hit city,
Bukoba, to attend a ceremony at its stadium.
“This tragic event is unprecedented. We’ve never
known this in our country,” he told mourners. “The
government is with you. It will not abandon you.”
President John Magufuli, who is from the region,
said he was “deeply saddened.”
A group of 15 boys at a secondary boarding school
in Bukoba district are believed to be among the 16
dead and 253 injured, according to Salum Kijuu,
governor of Kagera province where Bukoba is
located.
More than 800 buildings have been destroyed,
including 44 public ones, Kijuu said.
Across the border in Uganda, an unknown number
of homes have also been razed by the quake which
struck at about 2:30 p.m. at a depth of 40 km
(about 25 miles) in the region near Lake Victoria.
In the Ugandan village of Minziro in the district of
Rakai, residents appealed for help on Sunday,
describing terrifying scenes of rocks crashing
down nearby hillsides.
“I am sure the government can’t reconstruct our
houses but in the meantime it can aid us with
construction materials for tents,” victim Masembe
Remegio said.
Earthquakes are fairly common in the Great Lakes
region but are almost always of low intensity.
The quake’s epicenter was 23 km (14 miles) east of
the northwestern Tanzanian town of Nsunga, in
Bukoba district, and was felt in Rwanda, Burundi,
Uganda and Kenya, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Bukoba city suffered widespread damage, with 270
houses destroyed and electricity disrupted, the Red
Cross said in a statement.
Its main hospital was stretched to nearly full
capacity and had limited stocks of medicine.
“Telecommunications have been disrupted and we
are trying to get a clear picture of the damage to
hospitals and other essential infrastructure,”
Andreas Sandin, Red Cross operations coordinator
in East Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands, said in
a statement.
No damage was reported in Tanzania’s economic
capital, Dar es Salaam, which is located some 1,400
km (nearly 900 miles) southeast of Bukoba.
In Rwanda the shaking was felt across the country,
with hotel staff and half-dressed visitors seen
rushing out of their rooms in the capital, Kigali,
when the quake struck.
In Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, Willy
Nyamitwe, the president’s spokesman, tweeted: “I
just felt an earthquake at 1429.”