In the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, a fire broke out last Wednesday in one of its largest slums, Susan Bay. As a result, thousands of people were left homeless and destitute. The origin of this disaster remains unknown but investigations are continuing. Heaps of metal sheets, from which white smoke escaped, replaced the neighborhood of shacks built on unsanitary land reclaimed from the sea, on the edge of the historic center the next day.

A few blackened walls were still standing. Here and there, a few palm trees with burnt leaves were standing with their gaunt silhouettes in the middle of the rubble.

"We did not count any deaths, but several people were injured when they escaped from the inferno. Children have been separated from their families and the police are doing everything to find them and reunite them with their loved ones," said a police officer at the scene who did not wish to be identified.

"The extent of the damage is unknown, but thousands of people have probably been affected" by the disaster, the Freetown municipality had said overnight on Twitter, without giving a till.

"Out of control"

"The fire started late Wednesday afternoon from the seaside, under a strong wind. Around 18H30, it changed direction, hit the eastern part of Susan's Bay and then it spread everywhere, it was out of control," told AFP a resident, Foday Turay, according to whom the firefighters were hampered in their progress by the narrowness of the alleys.

"Four hundred houses at least are gone," Turay estimated. But since "almost everyone here is a shopkeeper, most people were luckily absent when the fire broke out," he added.

"I was at the market when I heard about the fire, so I came back and saw that there was no way to get into my house. I just grabbed my children and we went to safety," said resident Ya Alimamy Ofinoh. "I lost everything," said another resident, Ya Marie Kamara, in tears.

Despite its diamond-rich soil, Sierra Leone (population 7.5 million), a former British colony in West Africa, is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Its economy, plagued by corruption, was devastated by a civil war (1991-2002) that left some 120,000 dead. It remains fragile after the Ebola epidemic that ravaged it in 2014-2016, the fall in world commodity prices and the appearance last year of the coronavirus.

The European Union is "looking at ways to provide emergency assistance to the victims and will reflect with the authorities on the essential structural measures that will need to be taken to limit the risk of such disasters happening again," EU Ambassador Tom Vens said on Twitter.

The UN representative in Sierra Leone, Babatunde Ahonsi, visited the area to "analyze the extent of the disaster," the UN said on social media.

MamP's

© Photo crédits : TV5Monde

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