The first mass burials of victims of Sierra Leone’s devastating floods and mudslides took place on Thursday, as blame grew over government “inaction” over deforestation and poor urban planning.
Members of a burial team carry the bodies of victims from an ambulance into a morgue in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on August 16, 2017.
Sierra Leone began a weeklong period of national mourning on Wednesday as it emerged that 105 children were killed by the mudslides and torrential flooding that have left 600 people still missing in Freetown, in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country.
As it emerged that at least 105 of the dead were children, citizens and experts alike questioned why the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma had not done more to tackle illegal construction in the overcrowded capital Freetown
