Death toll in Sierra Leone floods crosses 400, hundreds missing

The death toll from the devastating floods in Sierra Leone has crossed 400, while an estimated 600 others remain missing, a senior Red Cross official said yesterday

Men wait beside empty graves for the coffins of mudslide victims at Waterloo cemetery near Freetown, Sierra Leone. Pic/AFP

The death toll from the devastating floods in Sierra Leone has crossed 400, while an estimated 600 others remain missing, a senior Red Cross official said yesterday. "Today, we are counting more than 400 people dead," the president of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, Elhadj As Sy, told reporters in Geneva.

An unofficial morgue toll had previously put the number around 400 dead, but the figure had not been officially confirmed. Sy said the government of the West African country was facing a crisis "way beyond (its) capacity" and appealed to the international community to significantly ramp up its support. "The displaced are still sleeping outside because there are not enough shelters for everybody," he said.

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