Over 100 minors killed in Sierra Leone floods, mudslides

At least 109 children were among the more than 300 people who were killed in the deadly floods and mudslides that swept through Sierra Leone earlier in the week, a UN agency said.

The number could grow as search and rescue operations are ongoing and over 600 people remain missing, after heavy rainfall caused a natural disaster in the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown on Monday, the United Nations children's fund (UNICEF) said on Thursday.

The Unicef representative in the country Hamid el-Bashir Ibrahim said the magnitude of the damage was unprecedented and many children were left homeless, terrified and vulnerable, Efe news agency reported.

In a report, Unicef explained that it had supplied water and sanitary resources to the affected families and had distributed supplies such as medicine, plastic tarps and gloves.

The UN's humanitarian teams were making water storage tanks available to distribute to displaced people in order to avoid cholera and typhoid fever outbreaks, as many wells were contaminated after the disaster.

Families have crowded at the local morgue to identify and remove the remains of victims they knew and it is expected that those who cannot be identified will be buried in mass graves.

--IANS

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