The start of the rainy season has been marked by a tragedy in Freetown when five people were killed by a boulder in the densely populated part of Gray Bush in the west of Freetown.
It followed a heavy downpour of rain on Sunday morning which rolled down the huge rock crushing people inside the house of adjoining rooms.
People in the neighbourhood were in shock, and wailed as the fourth body was brought out of the rubble while the head of the fifth could be seen as efforts were still ongoing to bring it out in the poor residential neighbourhood.
Four - including two children - died before they were brought out of the rubble, a fifth died shortly afterwards.
10-year-old Emmanuela Saffie Conteh met her death just a day after writing her primary school-leaving NPSE exams.
Sounding distraught and in between sobs, her father, Emmanuel Conteh, told Politico that she was one of only two children he had. "My daughter had come out of the house amid concerns at the dangling nature of the huge rock but returned inside to pick up something in the living room when the heavy rock fell on the building," the 38-year-old said.
Another of the victims was a 17-year-old Guinean who was on holiday.
"It was around 8 o clock in the morning when the big rock fell on my house" the owner of the eight-year-old house, Mohamed Sankoh said, adding that he had gone to seek refuge in the neighbouring house due to the heavy rain which was what saved him.
Baindu Lebbie survived simply because she had a quarrel with her husband who sent her away just a few days before. The husband, Saidu, was killed.
A community youth organiser, Yusufu Bendu said "no emergency services came to our rescue when the rock fell and we had to make do with our bare hands and shovels and pickaxes we could lay hands on". He said they went on like that until the Canadian NGO Concern Worldwide and the Irish organisation GOAL brought in more shovels and pickaxes.
"We brought out alive one of the people but he died because it took us long to get any assistance" Bendu said, adding that the national fire force and the police came to the scene much later and took the first four bodies to the central morgue at Connaught.
Town planning is poor in Freetown with squatters a common feature in this former resettlement for freed British slaves.
This latest incident comes just eight months after the colonial King Jimmy Bridge also caved in killing at least six people after a heavy downpour. In the last few years tens of people have perished through the combination of rainfall, mudslides and poor construction at Manfred Lane, Mountain Cut, New England and King Jimmy, among others.
The authorities often ignore the problem once the rains are over.
(C) Politico 06/05/14
