Rachael Smith |
Disaster struck Sierra Leone in the early hours of Monday morning in the form of mudslides and earthquakes. Unfortunately, this natural disaster has taken the estimated lives of hundreds and injured numerous more, along with destroying buildings and family homes.
The trauma of the 14th has continued, with the aftermath of the disaster leaving a nation in mourning…
Thousands of men, women and children have been left without roofs over their heads and are now looking for refuge after the traumatic events of August 14th.
Military personnel were deployed to help the citizens of Sierra Leone and their vice president, Victor Foh, commented on scene to the media saying:
“The disaster is so serious that I myself feel broken.”
He then went onto clarify that the services were doing their best to evacuate people and retrieve the bodies, although he is still appealing for international aid.
However the politicians of Sierra Leone have not been the only ones to speak out on the matter, as many citizens of both the USA and UK, as well as other many countries, took to social media sites to speak about how appalled they were about the lack of media attention the crisis received. One twitter user commented,
“This is so devastating. More than 400 people died in Sierra Leone and there’s been no international attention or aid.”
Another user of the site took to her platform to say “ What’s happening in Sierra Leone right now is heart breaking. Over 400 dead and world leaders barely have anything to say.” She also isn’t wrong as the USA president, Mr Donald J Trump, has yet to utter a single condolence about the situation or how he hopes to help.
Charities and humanitarian aid groups are also speaking out and they are asking for assistance. Action Aid and UNICEF are both looking for donations and they are urging that every little helps. Whereas other organisations, like the Red Cross, are scouting for volunteers to assist with a variety of relief efforts.
In the meantime, we could all help, very much, by raising awareness of the situation occurring right now and the developing global aid efforts. As well as this, we should all be keeping the people of Sierra Leone in our thoughts as their recovery begins.
Rachael Smith
