Sierra Leone Mudslides: Over 600 Still Missing

The Red Cross said about 600 people were still missing, as the death toll from massive mudslides in Sierra Leone’s capital rose on Tuesday.

According to the local authorities, more than 300 people were killed in and around Freetown on Monday following heavy rains. Many were trapped under tons of mud as they slept.

Bodies were reportedly washed up on a beach as workers searched for an untold number of people buried in their homes. Also, more than 300 bodies – many of which were spread on the floor – had been brought to the central Freetown-based The Connaught Hospital’s mortuary on Tuesday. A mass burial of victims is being planned to free up space in mortuaries.

Meanwhile, the West African country’s president, Ernest Bai Koroma, has solicited “urgent support”for thousands of people affected by the mudslides and massive flooding. According to him, entire communities had been wiped out the incident, which he said “was overwhelming us”.

Rescue efforts aimed at recovering more people from the muddy rubble that swept through the Regent area are on-going. The Red Cross, according to a BBC report, said it was struggling to get equipment in to extricate bodies that were buried deep in the mud.

Following a heavy downpour that occurred early on Monday morning, several homes in the Freetown were engulfed after part of Sugar Loaf mountain caved in.

Several of the victims were reported to have still been asleep in their beds when the disaster struck. Fears that the death toll would rise further were fuelled by the report of another estimated 3,000 people losing their homes.

The BBC quoted a charity worker for the Healey Relief Foundation and Caritas Freetown, Ishmael Charles, as saying that words could not do justice to the scale of the tragedy. “You will see a huge number of people crying with those who have lost their family members,” Charles said.

“It’s very difficult to paint what the reality looks like, because it’s more scary and very sad and disastrous than anyone can be able to describe.”

Dozens of houses were sub- merged in the Regent district, which had been described as the worst hit area, when the hillside collapsed at about 06:00 GMT. Survivors spoke of the family members they had lost – or still hoped to find alive.

“My wife is dead. My children are all dead. This morning my children and I talked before I left for work. One of them even chose the socks I should put on,”a man called Malikie told the BBC.

Another woman, called Adama, said she was still searching for her baby.

“We were inside. We heard the mudslide approaching. We were trying to flee. I attempted to grab my baby but the mud was too fast. She was covered, alive.

“I have not seen my husband, Alhaji. My baby was just seven weeks old.”

The BBC also quoted the international aid agency Save the Children as saying that one of its staff members, along with his children, had disappeared.

According to the report, his colleague Ramatu Jalloh was driving past Regent at the same time that the wall of mud and debris hit the area.

“A lady ran on to the road and started gesticulating wildly,”he said. “She called out to another lady who had been riding a bike in front of us who, after a brief conversation, started crying and looked very upset,” she said.

“It was clear from their reactions that something terrible had happened. Soon afterwards, another man ran towards our car. He was crying about the number of lives that had been lost.”