President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone has said that his country needed urgent support now for thousands of people affected by massive flooding a
President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone has said that his country needed urgent support now for thousands of people affected by massive flooding and mudslides in the capital of one of the world’s poorest nations. Koroma fought back tears as he addressed the media saying the devastation was overwhelming.
“Entire communities have been wiped out,” Koroma said at the disaster site, where heavy rains streaming down the hillside engulfed homes three or four stories high on Monday, many of them built illegally.
The Red Cross has said it was struggling to bring enough equipment to the site to excavate those buried deeply in the mud, but several bodies were extracted by available machinery at the site. Meanwhile close to 400 victims bodies of the devastating mudslide and massive flooding have been buried today.
Meanwhile the wife of the Ooni of Ife, Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi is through her initiative #Forward, in partnership with care, donating 50+ bed shelter home in Sierra Leone to assist and house victims of the mudslide and massive flooding that has rendered people homeless. The shelter will provide food, clothing, and shelter on a first come, first serve basis with more beds and homes to come.
Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi
“Gut-wrenching! Corpses too many to count strewn outside the mortuary which is full to the brim. More than 80 bodies brought in this morning, a source told me. Total nearing 400. They’re being sorted before mass burial starts. Having been doing this for decades. I have never seen anything like this before”, a pathologist Dr Owiz Koroma said.
The death toll is expected to be higher as government and the Red Cross said hundreds of people are still missing. Many people living at the foot of Mount Sugar Loaf were asleep when the mountainside collapsed, burying dozens of houses, including two-storey buildings, witnesses said.
Standing in the rain, residents sobbed as they mourned family members and waited for news of those missing. Adama Kamara wept as she described a failed attempt to rescue her 7-week-old child.
“We were inside when we heard the mudslide approaching. I attempted to grab my baby but the mud was too fast. She was covered alive,” said Kamara, who escaped with bruises. She said she was not sure what had happened to her husband.
A man said he had left early in the morning to buy bread. When he returned, his wife, children, siblings and in-laws were all dead. Mudslides and floods are fairly common during the rainy season in West Africa, where deforestation and poor town planning has put residents at risk.
