UN agencies rush aid to flood-hit Sierra Leone

New York, Aug 18 (IANS/WAM) United Nations agencies have stepped up efforts to aid displaced families affected by the deadly flooding and landslides in Sierra Leon's capital Freetown and surrounding areas, a media report said on Friday.

"The scale of the damage is unprecedented," said UN Children's Fund UNICEF Representative Hamid El-Bashir Ibrahim, noting that at least 109 children were among the several hundred people killed in the disaster that struck on Monday.

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

Taal has been given a task to coordinate the UN's humanitarian response to ensure timely distribution of aid, including food and shelter.

According to preliminary results of site assessments conducted by the Sierra Leone National Security Office and the United Nations Interagency Rapid Response Team, 1,039 households from several neighbourhoods in Freetown and 100 individuals currently in a mountain cut shelter were affected by floods and landslides.

Sierra Leone's Office of National Security estimated that more than 3,000 people lost their homes.

--IANS/WAM

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