FREETOWN: At least 312 people were killed and more than 2,000 left homeless on Monday when heavy flooding hit Sierra Leone’s capital of Freetown, leaving excavators to pull bodies from rubble and overwhelming the city’s morgues. Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world, according to UN indicators. “We have lost everything and we do not have a place to sleep,” she told AFP in tears. Rainy season not overSasha Ekanayake, Save the Children’s Sierra Leone Country Director, said the immediate priority was to provide shelter and protect residents, especially children, from the spread of deadly waterborne diseases. About 60 percent of people in Sierra Leone live below the national poverty line, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Source: Manila Times August 14, 2017 22:52 UTC