Mudslide Kills Over 300 in Sierra Leone

The AFP news agency is reporting that the total death toll from flooding in the capital has risen to 312, citing another Red Cross spokesperson.

Hundreds of people are likely to be left homeless following the mudslide.

A Sierra Leonean disaster management official, Candy Rogers, said that “over 2,000 people are homeless” as a result of the mudslide in the Regent area, AFP reports.

Mr Rogers said that a huge humanitarian effort will be required to deal with the aftermath of the flooding.

eople are wailing uncontrollably; one woman told me she had lost more than 11 members of her family in the disaster, while another man said he had lost his wife, mother-in-law and children.

Hundreds of people are still coming to the area to look for their loved ones. Some of them told me they have not been able to find them.

In fact, there is no sign of the dozens of homes that were built at the foot of Mount Sugar Loaf.

They are covered in mud, with large areas of mire in some parts. It looks strong, but it is flaky. The concern is that if people walk there they risk sinking in the mud.

Emergency services are at the scene trying to rescue people trapped in their homes after a section of a hill collapsed.

Images posted on Twitter show people wading through streets, waist-deep in muddy water following the downpour in and around Freetown.

BBC