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Floods kill more than 300, fears rise as 600 more missing
At least 105 children are missing in Sierra Leone after a flood claimed the lives of over 300 people
The Red Cross has estimated that 600 people are still missing (Saidu Bah for AFP)
Sierra Leone entered a week-long mourning period for the victims of the flooding that has killed more than 300 people, with fears that the death roll could rise as 600 remain missing.
AFP news agency reported on Wednesday that among the dead were at least 105 children.
Three days of torrential rain triggered mudslides on Monday in the Sierra Leone capital, Freetown. It also caused massive flooding elsewhere in the city, one of the world’s wettest urban areas in the world.
The exact death toll was unclear as reports from rescue workers show that almost 400 bodies were recovered.
President Ernest Bai Koroma has asked relatives to come to the city’s overwhelmed mortuary to identify corpses, who will be given a “dignified burial” Thursday.
Satellite images show the extensive damage caused by deadly mudslides and floods have rendered around 3,000 people homeless.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric has said that the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) released $150,000 in emergency funds immediately following the flooding.
Sulaiman Zaino Parker, an official with Freetown's city council, said 150 burials took place on Tuesday evening and that many would be laid to rest in graves alongside victims of the country's last humanitarian disaster, the Ebola crisis, in nearby Waterloo.
