Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries.
It is facing a humanitarian crisis following a devastating landslide on August
14 that killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands in the capital,
Freetown.
This is the second tragedy to hit the country in
under three years following the Ebola outbreak that broke in 2014, killing at
least 3,955 citizens.
Below are things to know about the crisis-hit
country;
Sources; Al
Jazeera, UNICEF
Canada, Agence
France-Presse, Deutsche
Welle, PUNCH,
Al
Jazeera, QUARTZ
Africa, gofundme,
BBC, National
Post
Massive
Mudslide
On the night of August 14, a hillside collapsed in
the mountainous town of Regent on the outskirts of the capital, killing at
least 500 people, and leaving about 3,000 others homeless.
Three-day torrential rains caused the landslide in
the hilly region.
Children
hit hard
At least 200 children perished in the disaster.
Hundreds of others are yet to be accounted for by the authorities.
Deadliest
in Africa
The mudslide is one of the deadliest disasters to
hit the continent in the past two decades.
In November 2001, deadly floods hit Algeria and El
Nino that ravaged Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda and Somalia between October
1997 and January 1998.
The Algeria tragedy killed at least 700 people while
El Nino led to about 6,000 deaths.
Superstitious
tales
Residents gave superstitious tales on what caused
the tragedy. Some said people in the city killed a sacred snake in the hills
and that the mudslide was a punishment from the snake’s mother.
Others said residents ate a whale beached in
Freetown and that the landslide was a punishment from Mother Nature.
Massive
Displacement
At least 20,000 are currently displaced from their
homes following the landslide.
Mallence
Bart-Williams
Williams, a Sierra Leone-German writer and film
maker, started on online funding campaign dubbed, ‘Freetown Emergency Food
Relief’ to raise money for emergency relief in the devastated West African
nation.
The campaign targets to raise at least 50,000 Euros.
Past
Devastation
The ongoing humanitarian crisis came two years after
the Ebola ravaged the country alongside neighboring Liberia and Guinea, since
December 2014.
It killed close to 4,000 people before World Health
Organization (WHO) announced that the country had beaten off the epidemic in
2015.
Nightmare
for mortuaries
Bodies of victims are decomposing in mortuaries as
they remain unidentified by the next of kin.
Authorities have buried hundreds of others in mass graves.
Some bodies were decapitated, missing heads, legs
and hands.
Gory
scenes
Decomposing bodies appeared in drainage systems
while some were washed up on the ocean shores.
Authorities advised locals and tourists against
swimming in the Freetown’s waters after at least 60 bodies washed up on the
beaches.
Rescue workers and volunteers dug with their bare
hands through the debris In search of bodies.
Professional
Negligence
Joseph Rahall, a leading environmentalist said poor
construction patterns and deforestation were major factors in the disaster.
Rahall, director of Green Scenery decried the lack
of action by the ministries of Agriculture and Lands, which led to citizens to
build homes in disaster-prone areas and massive deforestation in search of
charcoal and firewood.
Impoverished
nation
Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the
world.
Nearly 60 percent of the population lives below the
poverty line.
Low
literacy levels
The literacy level among the country’s adults is a
paltry 42 percent. This falls considerably low compared to the global rate of
more than 80 percent.
Age-old
traditions are rife
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is accepted by about
88 percent of the population.
This is the practice of removing a woman’s genitalia
for both religious and cultural practices.
