Sierra Leone mudslide: UN steps up effort to aid displaced families

UN agencies are stepping up efforts to aid displaced families affected by the deadly flooding and landslides in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, and surrounding areas.

“The scale of the damage is unprecedented,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative, Hamid Ibrahim, said in a statement.

Mr. Ibrahim noted that at least 109 children were counted among the several hundred people killed in the disaster that struck on Monday.

“Children have been left homeless, vulnerable and terrified. We must do all we can to protect them from disease and exploitation,” the UNICEF representative added.

“UNICEF teams, working with the Government of Sierra Leone and partners, are providing safe drinking water and sanitation, and delivering supplies including medicines, tents and gloves following the Government’s request for support.

“UNICEF is also offering psycho-social support to those traumatized by the events,” he said.

While the mudslides have left death and destruction behind them, the Director and Representative of the World Food Program (WFP) in Sierra Leone, Housainou Taal, said his UN agency “is focusing on survivors so that they can rise and move forward.”

The UN Resident Coordinator in Sierra Leone, Sunil Saigal, appointed Taal to coordinate the UN’s humanitarian response to ensure timely distribution of aid, including food and shelter, the UN said.

“In the hours following the landslides in Freetown, WFP began distributing food aid to some 7,500 people affected by disasters.

“The aid, which includes rations of vegetable oil and vegetable oil lenses for at least two weeks, has been distributed to Regent, Sugar Loaf and Mortomeh – neighbourhoods around the affected area.”

The Sierra Leone National Security Office and the UN Interagency Rapid Response Team, have conducted preliminary results of site assessments.

The results showed that 1,039 households from several neighborhoods in Freetown (including Regent , Kamayamah, Dworzak, Culvert and Kaningo) and 100 individuals currently in a mountain cut shelter have been affected by floods and landslides.

“Sierra Leone’s Office of National Security (ONS) estimates that more than 3,000 people have lost their homes,” the UN said.

(NAN)