Sierra Leone began a week of mourning Wednesday as it emerged that 105 children were among more than 300 people who perished in mudslides and torrential flooding, in one of the country’s worst natural disasters.
With 600 people still missing in Freetown, President Ernest Bai Koroma described the humanitarian challenge ahead as “overwhelming”.
He said flags would fly at half-mast and called for urgent help after visiting the devastated hilltop community of Regent on Tuesday.
Aid organisations meanwhile warned that the rainy season was not yet over and that more floodingcould arrive at any moment in the west African coastal city of around a million people.
