(CNN) -- The death toll from a landslide that buried three villages in eastern Uganda stood at 18 on Tuesday, with rescue officials fearing the figure would rise.
Another 92 were injured and countless more were unaccounted for, the Red Cross said.
Heavy rains sent rocks and mud crashing down on the villages in the mountainous district of Bududa on Monday, about 275 kilometers (170 miles) northeast of the capital Kampala.
"Last night district authorities requested all people in high risk places to move to a school that we are using as a primary camp," Catherine Ntabadde of the Uganda Red Cross Society said Tuesday.
The Red Cross is working alongside members of the Ugandan army to relocate more than 1,000 people.
"People are a bit reluctant to move until an incident like this happens. People want to stay near their homes and find out what happened to their loved ones and their belongings," Ntabadde said.
Torrential downpours regularly cause landslides in the eastern part of the country, particularly in areas where heavy logging have left land stripped off vegetation.
Last August, at least 23 people died when a massive landslide swallowed homes in the Bulambuli district, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) from Kampala.
In 2010, another landslide in the same region killed at least 87.
