Hundreds gather at Freetown mortuary to search for loved ones as UN evaluates risk of further landslides, after disaster that has so far claimed 400 lives

Hundreds have queued outside a mortuary in Freetown to search for their loved ones, following a mudslide on Monday that has claimed at least 400 lives.

A further 600 people are still unaccounted for, according to the Red Cross, which has continued to search for bodies buried in the debris. Recovery efforts have been hampered by the country’s dangerous terrain, a lack of equipment and the sheer scale of the tragedy.

Sierra Leone mudslide: president calls for urgent help as search continues Read more

A week of national mourning commenced on Wednesday, with a minute’s silence held at midday in memory of the victims. A national emergency has been declared and the country’s security level has been moved to three, the highest status. The deputy health minister, Madina Rahman, said Freetown was now facing a possible cholera outbreak, as a result of the contaminated water pooling in the streets and bodies lying in the open.

The UN is also assessing the threat of another mudslide or further flooding. Linnea Van Wagenen, working for the UN in Sierra Leone, said on Tuesday: “We have the mountains and very steep hillsides. [It’s very hard to] access these areas, where it’s muddy, it’s slippery – there’s a risk of a second landslide. We’re not sure how this massive landslide has affected the ground around it.”

Play Video 0:34 Drone shows Sierra Leone mudslide aftermath – video

At least 100 houses were engulfed when a hillside in Regent, a mountainous town 15 miles east of Freetown, collapsed in the early hours of Monday morning. Burials for 150 victims took place on Tuesday evening, according to Sulaiman Zaino Parker, an official with Freetown’s city council. The graves would be specially marked for future identification, he added.

“We have started burying some of the mutilated and decomposed bodies. All the corpses will be given a dignified burial with Muslim and Christian prayers,” Parker told Agence France-Presse.

Many of the bodies are to be laid to rest in Waterloo, 20 miles south-east of Freetown, alongside victims of the country’s Ebola crisis, which claimed almost 4,000 lives when the virus spread across the country in 2014.

Martin Patience (@martinpatience) Crowds gathered outside the mortuary in Freetown pic.twitter.com/MG7m0vM1Jo

On Tuesday evening, the government asked bereaved families to identify their loved ones at the Connaught hospital mortuary, which is unable to contain the hundreds of bodies. All unidentified corpses will be given a dignified burial on 17 and 18 August, the office of the president said in a statement.

Hundreds have come forward in the hope of finding their loved ones, but identification is difficult because of the condition of the bodies, some of which are dismembered. In other cases, entire families have been killed.

Addressing the media on Tuesday, president Ernest Bai Koroma warned the devastation “was overwhelming us”. “Entire communities have been wiped out,” Koroma said. “We need urgent support now.”

An estimated 9,000 people have been affected in some way by the disaster, according to Abdul Nasir, programme coordinator for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

“I have never seen anything like it,” he told the Associated Press. “A river of mud came out of nowhere and swallowed entire communities, just wiped them away. We are racing against time, more flooding and the risk of disease to help affected communities survive and cope with their loss.”

Patricia Conteh, programme coordinator for Tearfund in Sierra Leone, said local communities have been devastated. One church has lost 60 people, with as many as 500 left homeless. “There are people without a cent,” she said. “Some of these areas are slum areas. Some of them live from day to day. The goods they sell were in those houses. Everything was swept away.”

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The dangers facing young women and children were a particular concern, said Maytou Ganda, Sierra Leone country director for ActionAid. “There is potential risk of rape because they are trying to find places to stay. Another issue is psycho-social trauma – they cannot believe that they slept last night and when they woke up this morning they were alone. Their whole family had been wiped out.”

NGOs were facing challenges in accessing hard-to-reach areas, procuring food from suppliers, she added.

The International Organization for Migration has released $150,000 (£115,000) in emergency funds, while the UK’s Department for International Development announced on Wednesday that it has offered humanitarian supplies, including generators and tents. Public Health England is helping to develop a cholera response plan for the next three months to monitor and treat any outbreaks caused by the flooding, and two humanitarian experts are also being deployed.



Valeria Minardi works for the NGO Emergency, which runs a surgical centre close to Regent. She said they had treated 50 patients so far, with 15 needing surgery and two in a critical condition.

UNICEF Sierra Leone (@UNICEFSL) So far, 109 children are reported among the dead after mudslides and flooding in #Freetown, acc. to data released by the Government. pic.twitter.com/CV4Yq9JbWH

She warned the country would struggle to cope with a cholera epidemic. “Sierra Leone learned a lot from Ebola so I hope that all the systems that were in place during Ebola time can [be used again],” said Minard, but she added: “The health system is compromised. It was compromised before Ebola, and it was even more compromised during Ebola. One year is not enough [to recover].”

She added that there is anger, as well as shock, among communities affected. “Rainy season is always heavy, so they are used to this heavy rain. The problem is that buildings are being constructed even in places where it’s dangerous. Some people are angry now.”

Briama Koroma, co-director of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre, said the tragedy could have been avoided if the government had listened to campaigners. Civil society groups have repeatedly warned that houses are being built illegally in areas that contribute to the risk of flooding.

“Most of the residents are top civil servants, private individuals, senior military and police officers, and squatters that grabbed the land to build houses. Through this action, the Sugar Loaf Mountain, which is national protected reserve area for the water reservoir and water dam, was infiltrated,” said Koroma. The government has failed to clamp down on such developments, he added.