MASS BURIAL FOR SIERRA LEONE FLOOD VICTIMS

Aid organisations have warned that the rainy season is not yet over and that more flooding could arrive at any moment in the Sierra Leone capital/ AFP

Mass burial of victims of Sierra Leone's devastating floods and mudslides will hold on Thursday, as blame grows over government's "inaction" over deforestation and poor urban planning.

According to reports, 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.

'Not over yet'

Aid organisations have also warned that the rainy season is not yet over and that more flooding could arrive at any moment in the west African coastal city of around one million people.

People in Sierra Leone line up to find out about the fate of loved ones in the deadly flooding and mudslides in the capital Freetown/ AFP

The disaster began on Monday when heavy rains hit the city and the partial collapse of a hillside triggered mudslides, engulfing homes and wreaking destruction.

Although the death toll is officially 300, rescue workers privately agree the toll is far higher.

 

Hundreds of people have been killed in the flooding and mudslides in Sierra Leone, at least 100 of them children/ AFP

An unofficial morgue toll put the number of deaths from at 400.

Citizens were given the deadline of Wednesday evening to identify their loved ones at the overflowing central morgue, and the first mass burials will begin at 3 pm (1500 GMT) in Waterloo, a nearby town where many victims of the Ebola crisis that hit the nation in 2014 were also laid to rest.