Bawumia to visit Sierra Leone as Ghana sends relief items

Vice President Mahamadu Bawumia will visit Sierra Leone on Saturday, August 19 to commiserate with its citizens after the mudslide and flooding disaster.

Monday’s natural disaster, which hit the community of Regent on the outskirts of Freetown, left over 400 people dead and thousands displaced.

Ahead of his trip, the government will airlift relief items to Sierra Leone later today [Friday].

The relief items, comprising food, medicines, clothing, and logistics, are estimated to cost $1 million.

The government set up a relief centre at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive donations from the public.

The relief items will be timely as there is growing concern about the risk to public health from water-borne diseases such as cholera.

Sierra Leone President, Ernest Koroma, when he visited the disaster stricken area, called on the international community to provide “urgent support”.

Sierra Leone’s presidential spokesperson, Abdulai Baraytay said the situation on the ground was critical when he spoke to an Accra based radio station a day after the mass burials for the dead.

“We are dealing with a humanitarian situation. We have young people being displaced, people being orphaned; we have problems of medication and medical supplies. We needed sheltered and tents to help the people temporarily. Just this morning, the chief medical has also raised the huge concern of the potential of a cholera outbreak.”

“We continue to appeal to the international community and our friends in the sub region to come to our aid in this dire need… we need even social workers,” Mr. Baraytay said.

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