Death toll rises to 450 from Sierra Leone mudslide

APD NEWS

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The death toll has risen to 450 in this week’s devastating mudslide in Sierra Leone. Officials said a third of the dead are children. Mass search operations are underway for the hundreds that are believed to be still buried under the rubble. But there’s little hope of finding anyone alive.

Authorities say about 600 people still remain unaccounted after heavy rain on Monday caused the massive mudslides. It’s assumed that the missing are all buried under the mud, and the fear is that the majority of them may never be found.

Bodies pulled from the grounds are bagged and driven to the mortuary.

Cities across Africa face similar threat of landslides.

Researchers say that natural and human factors made Sierra Leone’s capital vulnerable to a landslide: heavy rain, deforested land and communities forced by overcrowding to live on steep hillsides.

Those vulnerabilities are mirrored in villages and cities across West and Central Africa – among the world's poorest and wettest regions – that face a worsening threat from landslides.

(CGTN)