The death toll continues to rise after a landslide buried villages in a coffee-growing region of eastern Uganda.

Officials said an estimated 30 people are dead and more than 100 people are missing after heavy rain triggered a mudslide on Mount Elgon on Monday.

Harite Nambit lost her eight-year-old son.

(SOUNDBITE) (Lugisu) HARITE NAMBIT, BEREAVED MOTHER, SAYING:

"The descending soil caught up with him and got buried in the mud."

With two villages buried in mud, officials called off the search and rescue operation late Tuesday - saying the chance of finding more survivors was slim.

Concerns that more rain could cause more mudslides - forced many residents to evacuate their homes.

Uganda's Minister for Disaster Preparedness Musa Ecweru:

SOUNDBITE (English) UGANDA'S MINISTER FOR DISASTER PREPAREDNESS MUSA ECWERU, SAYING:

"I have insisted, on behalf of government, that the communities living in those steep hills must relocate, given the valley that has been created by this land slide, and given the weather that we are expecting more rain, it is likely that the soil will cave in and we will lose more people."

More than 200 people have been displaced so far.

Sarah Irwin, Reuters.