Sierra
Leone began seven days of national mourning on Wednesday after flooding and
massive mudslides triggered by heavy rains left hundreds dead.
A
minute of silence was scheduled to be observed at 1200 GMT in memory of the
victims, said Information Minister, Mohamed Banguara.
On
Wednesday evening, an interreligious night vigil and prayer meeting will be
held at the national stadium in the capital, Freetown, where the disaster
struck.
The
bodies of 297 people, including 109 children, had been counted in the morgue of
Freetown’s largest hospital, Connaught Hospital, alone, Banguara said.
The
exact toll remained unclear on Wednesday, however, with the Health Ministry
previously speaking of 500 deaths, and many missing.
The
minister said a mass burial is planned on Thursday, as morgues were overflowing
with corpses.
According
to the Red Cross, most deaths occurred in the Regent neighbourhood on the
outskirts of Freetown, which lies beneath Sugarloaf Mountain, where a mudslide
destroyed at least 1,000 homes, with an estimated 3,000 people made homeless.
Rescue
efforts continued on Wednesday but progressed only slowly because roads were
blocked due to the floods and lack of equipment.
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