Burials underway for hundreds of mudslide victims

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — The government has begun burying the 350 people killed earlier this week in mudslides in Sierra Leone’s capital, and it warned Thursday of new danger from a crack that has opened on a mountainside where residents were told to evacuate.

Another 600 people remained missing from the mudslides and flooding early Monday, as workers sought to recover more bodies from the mud and debris of smashed homes.

The government hired 600 gravediggers for the burials, which are taking place in a cemetery where victims of the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak that killed thousands in the West African nation were buried.

Each person will be buried individually in a dignified manner, said Cornelius Deveaux, deputy minister of information and communications.

Dr. Owiss Koroma, the government’s chief pathologist, said the confirmed death toll from the mudslide and flooding was at least 350. A third of the victims are children.

Thousands have lost their homes in impoverished, low-lying areas of Freetown and surrounding communities.

The focus is getting people away from areas still under threat, Zuliatu Cooper, the deputy minister of health and sanitation, said.

“The rains are still pending, and there is a possibility that we will have another incident,” he said. “We would rather have structures falling down without people in them.”

Survivors said they were haunted by thoughts of dead relatives.

“Last night, I could not sleep,” said Tenneh Bull, who lost a daughter. “Even now I’m still thinking of her; thoughts of her death is lingering.”