(Freetown) Sierra Leoneans on Monday buried dozens of people killed in tanker explosion that left 115 dead according to new death toll and prompted health officials to seek help from abroad to assist overwhelmed hospitals.
Thousands of people crowded along the road as 85 bodies passed by to a cemetery on the outskirts of the capital.
There have been buried there in the past many victims of the Ebola fever which struck West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and particularly Sierra Leone, one of the poorest countries in the world, noted a correspondent of AFP.
PHOTO SAIDU BAH, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
Health workers stand in front of the graves of 85 victims.
The explosion of a tank truck hit by another heavy truck on Friday at a gas station in an industrial area in Freetown left at least 115 dead and 91 injured, some of them very seriously, the National Agency said. disaster management in a new balance sheet.
The fire spread to the surrounding neighborhood. Witnesses said the majority of the victims were street vendors and motorcyclists trapped in the flames as they attempted to retrieve the fuel that escaped from the crashed tanker.
NDMA PHOTO VIA AP
“We are here today to give a dignified burial to our tragically dead compatriots,” President Julius Maada Bio said at the funeral.
May God grant them His grace, but we will investigate to find out the causes of the accident and prevent it from happening again.
Julius Maada Bio, president
PHOTO SAIDU BAH, FRANCE-PRESSE AGENCY
President Julius Maada Bio laid a wreath in front of the graves.
“My family lost three of their family in the tanker explosion, at least I’m happy the government gave them a dignified burial,” said Kadie Sesay, a relative of the victims at the cemetery.
The authorities had left those relatives who so wished the freedom to bury their dead themselves.
Before the funeral, thousands of mourners gathered at the morgue of Connaught Hospital, the facility where the largest number of victims have been admitted, to bid farewell to loved ones in an odor barely bearable and in the midst of an important safety device.
A proven country
Hospitals are overwhelmed by the influx of wounded and the lack of resources.
“We desperately need medical supplies for critical burns,” Dr Moses Batima, deputy director general of the Health Ministry’s Medical Supplies Agency, told AFP.
“We need infusion fluids, medical consumables to heal wounds, bandages and painkillers,” he said.
Hospital services drew on their reserves and equipment from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived at the airport on Monday, he said, adding that hospitals also benefited from donations but that was not enough. not.
“We call for help from the international community for medical equipment for the most serious cases,” he said.
Hospital staff are “overwhelmed”, said Dr Moses Batima, assuring that “some intensive care workers have been working continuously for three days”.
The names of victims referred to other hospitals have been posted at the entrance to Connaught Hospital to help their families locate them.
“We will check the DNA of all the corpses before the burial, in order to have files on all the dead people,” Sinneh Kamara, a forensic officer told AFP.
President Bio announced Sunday a three-day national mourning from Monday.
Sierra Leone, a former British colony of 7.5 million people, is one of the poorest countries on the planet despite a soil teeming with diamonds.
Its economy, plagued by corruption, was devastated by a civil war (1991-2002) which left some 120,000 dead. She was still struggling to recover from the effects of Ebola when she was affected by COVID-19.