Farmers cry as hailstorm destroys crops, homes in Hoima villages

Over one hundred farmers in Hoima district are in tears after heavy winds and a hailstorm destroyed their crops and houses on Sunday evening.

The majority of families were left to sleep in open grounds.

The storm heavily hit Haibale, Kyakayaya, Bukona, Kikonkona and Kyakasato villages in Kisukuma sub-county and Kigorobya town council.

Some of the destroyed crops include banana plantations, beans, sim sim, cassava, soybeans, and groundnuts, among others.

Kwesiga said that she lost all of her sim sim, beans, and cassava gardens, leaving her in a difficult situation to provide food for her livelihood.

“I had planted sim sim, beans, and cassava which were all destroyed today (May 3) and I have nothing left,” she said with emotion.

Mbabazi Teopista, a street vendor in Kisukuma said she was also affected after all of her merchandise was destroyed by the hailstorm.

Besides her getting destroyed, she adds that she nearly lost her backbone after getting hit by a flying tree trunk carried off by a strong wind.

Johnson Kugonza from Haibale says he was left homeless after the strong wind blew off the roof of his house.

“It has made us live like wild birds with no permanent homes. So, currently, we are really defining the definition of being a vagabond,” he told tndNews, Uganda.

Amanyire John Mary, the LC1 chairman of Kyakasatu, says outstanding situations in his area of jurisdiction call for urgent help from both the government and the humanitarian bodies.

“Right now people are living a very miserable life of having no food, or shelter. We really need the government to take this as a serious matter,” he said.

Likewise, to the affected communities, they also called upon the government to come to their rescue.

This incident comes two months after the same scenario happened in Kasingo cell in Hoima City, where a hailstorm struck and left over five houses collapsed and crops destroyed.

tndNews, Uganda was unable to reach out to the district officials including environmental and agricultural officers for their contribution towards the incident at the time of publication.