Hundreds of mudslide victims buried in Sierra Leone, search for hundreds missing goes on
Record ID:
906776
Hundreds of mudslide victims buried in Sierra Leone, search for hundreds missing goes on
- Title: Hundreds of mudslide victims buried in Sierra Leone, search for hundreds missing goes on
- Date: 17th August 2017
- Summary: WATERLOO, SIERRA LEONE (AUGUST 17, 2017) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF GRAVES IN CEMETERY AND WORKERS AND PEOPLE WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (English) MUHAMAD SESAY, SAYING: "It is very very boring nationally, internationally, for shorter people, our lovely ones go like this, devastated. What I am appealing to the present government, we have a lot to do and first of all it is of course according to the Bible and the Koran, it is of course according to the Bible and the Koran that (indistinct) someone else perish like this. We hope it will never begin, everlasting more." (SOUNDBITE) (Krio) LAMIN KAGBO, SAYING: "What is happening now today, I know I feel sad because of what happened in this country now, this burial today. What has happened should never happen again in this country. We feel sad what's happening, we don't feel alright." (SOUNDBITE) (Krio) FATMATA SHERIFF, SAYING: "What has happened in this country since Monday is bad. I am here to sympathise and I pray to God to grant heaven to the dead."
- Embargoed: 31st August 2017 22:27
- Keywords: Sierra Leone mudslide victims mass burial grave digging severe weather
- Location: WATERLOO, SIERRA LEONE
- City: WATERLOO, SIERRA LEONE
- Country: Sierra Leone
- Topics: Disaster/Accidents,Floods
- Reuters ID: LVA0016UJR03R
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Burials began on Thursday (August 17) for 300 people killed in Sierra Leone's mudslide while the search went on for hundreds of others still missing.
In a ceremony attended by President Ernest Bai Koroma, wooden coffins were lowered into hurriedly dug graves at a cemetery in Waterloo, as the country tried to begin recovering from one of Africa's worst flood disasters in living memory.
At least 400 people were killed on Monday (August 14) when a torrent of mud swept away homes on the edge of Freetown. One hundred and fifty have already been buried.
Meanwhile, the search for remaining bodies intensified at the mudslide site as aid agencies warned that corpses trapped in the mud are likely to contaminate water sources and cause outbreaks of disease.
In total, approximately 600 people are missing, the Red Cross has said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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