SIERRA LEONE. Aug 20 (TNS): Mudslide and flooding has swept away hundreds of homes in the neighborhood of the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, resulting in the ever growing death toll of hundreds of people and hundreds of others missing, feared to dead.
The deputy minister of information and communication of Sierra Leone, Cornelius Deveaux, on Saturday has said that Four hundred and forty-one corpses (were) buried as at yesterday adding that the number of missing was still being calculated
Red Cross on Friday gave the tally of deaths as more than 400, with around 600 others listed as missing.
But on the other hand a morgue worker at Connaught Hospital, Mohamed Sinneh Kamara has said that they buried 50 more bodies on Friday. ‘’We have so far buried 450 corpses. Most of the bodies were found decomposed and families were not allowed to identify (them).”
The disaster struck on Monday after Freetown, home to 1.2 million people and the capital of one of the world’s poorest countries, had been pounded for three days by torrential rain.
According to the charity Save the Children, the disaster killed 122 children and left 123 orphaned.
The Red Cross has issued an emergency funding appeal. Britain, the former colonial power in Sierra Leone, has pledged $6.45 million, while China has pledged $1 million.
Water-borne diseases such as cholera and malaria are a major fear.
Flooding is an annual menace in Sierra Leone, where ramshackle homes are regularly swept away by seasonal rains. In 2015, floods killed 10 people and left thousands homeless.
