A week-long period of national mourning was declared on Wednesday in Sierra Leone for victims of the devastating mudslide that claimed over 400 lives with over 600 still unaccounted for. Flags would fly at half-mast during this period of mourning.
The disaster, the worst to have hit the country’s capital Freetown has left Sierra Leone devastated and in dire need for humanitarian support.
The country’s President Ernest Bai Koroma on Tuesday called for international support to deal with the crisis.
AFP reported that officials at Freetown’s central morgue said on Wednesday that 105 of the more than 400 officially dead were children.
Mass burials have been ongoing since Tuesday for some of the bodies difficult to identify because they were badly mutilated.
The United Nations has said it was evaluating humanitarian needs in the country. Israel has sent aid packages from Senegal and the World Food Programme (WFP) has also distributed two-week rations of rice, pulses and cooking oil to 7,500 people.
According to the AFP, the UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York that the UN was “supporting national authorities in rescue operations, helping evacuate residents, providing medical assistance to the injured, registering survivors, and providing food rations, water and dignity kits to those affected.”
There are fears if help doesn’t come quickly there could be an outbreak of diseases which could compound the situation.
Source: Africafeeds.com
