Sierra Leone

This weekly update is produced by UNDP in collaboration with the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Sierra Leone, liaising with the Office of National Security and development partners.

Situation overview　　

Following emergency response to the landslide and floods in and around Freetown on 14 August 2017, the UN system in Sierra Leone is now supporting national recovery.　　

TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THE DIFFERENT NEEDS OF WOMEN, MEN, GIRLS, BOYS MAKES HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE MORE EFFECTIVE AND ACCOUNTABLE TO ALL AFFECTED POPULATIONS.

ABOUT

Overview

This weekly bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 48 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:

• Plague in Madagascar

• Undiagnosed acute jaundice syndrome in Ethiopia

• Humanitarian crisis in Nigeria

• Humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia

• Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan

• Hepatitis E in Chad

• Malaria in Burundi

Introduction

The present text is an extended summary of a report produced by the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat West Africa. The report examines mixed migration within, from and to West Africa and aims to gather available knowledge concerning people moving in mixed flows with the principal aim of identifying vulnerable groups and assessing their specific protection needs.

Résumé

Summary

In solidarity with the people of Sierra Leone, the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation volunteers and staff from Taiwan, United States, France, and Spain arrived in Sierra Leone on September 16, 2017. The visiting team is in Sierra Leone to boost its ongoing hot meal program for flood survivors, assess long-term needs and submit report to Dharma Master Cheng Yen and Tzu Chi Taiwan to develop sustainable relief support for survivors. The Tzu Chi volunteers are very excited to be in Sierra Leone and happy to provide support to those in need.

Aid agencies hope that these cash transfers mean families will not be forced to take their children out of school or sell their assets in order to ensure they have enough food to eat

By Kieran Guilbert

DAKAR, Sept 15 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Money is being sent via mobile phone to hundreds of families who survived a deadly mudslide on the outskirts of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown last month, the United Nations said on Friday.

As recovery rolls out one month after the emergency response to the 14 August landslide and floods, UNDP will continue to work with the Government of Sierra Leone moving towards sustainable and inclusive risk informed development.

What have we done?

UNDP has provided technical and practical support to the Office of National Security (ONS), donating computers, generators, rain gear, printers, stationery, communication cards and furniture that enabled first responders in the immediate rescue efforts of emergency coordination centers.

Africa Weather Hazard

Since early August, above-average seasonal rainfall caused flooding in some areas. With well above-average moisture conditions, additional rain in September may trigger flooding in parts of Senegal,
The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

1. Recent heavy rains have caused the Benue River in Nigeria to overflow its banks. Reports indicate that 100,000 people may have been displaced by flooding. Continued rainfall will keep rivers high.

FREETOWN, 15 September 2017 – Sierra Leone’s first ever Oral Cholera Vaccination (OCV) campaign kicked off today, September 15th 2017. The emergency campaign targets communities affected by Western Area’s recent floods and landslides, which left over 6,000 people displaced and caused more than 500 confirmed deaths.

• The Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone had severe impacts on the country’s health system, economy and food security situation. Many households experienced new or increased food insecurity as Ebola-related fears and restrictions on movement and mass gatherings disrupted trade, increased food prices and reduced household income.

The Israeli Government has through the Office of the First Lady Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma, donated some medical relief supplies, including 5 cartoons of septrin suspension, 11 cartoons azithromycin tabs, 5 cartoons ciprofloxacin, 3 cartoons septrin tabs, 4 cartoons doxycyline tabs, 8 cartoons vibramycin suspension, 1 box of catgut, 1 box furovenir solution and 68 cartoons of face masks for the August 14 2017 flood and mudslide victims.

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

On the 14th August, 2017 at about 6:45 am, after days of heavy rain, a massive mudslide and floods occurred in Regent community in Freetown; the nation’s capital.

The magnitude of the mudslide was unimaginable and has caused untold suffering on the lives of many people, properties worth billions of Leones were destroyed, houses were submerged and hundreds of people were buried.

13 September 2017: Sierra Leoneans will not forget August 14, 2017. Flash floods and a mudslide left an estimated 500 people dead and caused widespread destruction. The stakes for conflict are high as citizens seek answers to questions of better urban housing facilities and functional land policies. As Insight on Conflict’s Abdul Brima reports from the capital, the situation remains dire for survivors.

They say history exists to teach the past and guide the future. But is this really true?

Regent, SIERRA LEONE – “I saw the rocks from the hill fly up into the air,” Martha Kamara, 28, told UNFPA, describing the floods and landslides that devastated 13 areas in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital, last month.

Ms. Kamara is eight months pregnant from the Motormeh Community in Regent. She and two of her daughters, ages 9 and 5, survived the disaster. But her three-year-old daughter and brother both died.

“When the rescue team pulled my brother out from the mud, they pulled out his unclothed corpse and some of his body parts,” Ms. Kamara said.

The Buddhist Tzu Chi Compassion Relief Foundation, which has been active in providing humanitarian support to vulnerable Sierra Leoneans since the outbreak of the 2014 Ebola virus in West Africa, responded with compassionate care to survivors of the August 14 deadly flooding and landslide that left hundreds of people dead and missing.