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FACTBOX-Donors' aid pledges for Sierra Leone after deadly mudslide

by Kieran Guilbert | KieranG77 | Thomson Reuters Foundation
Friday, 18 August 2017 13:48 GMT

A mother who lost her son during the mudslide gets consoled by a sympathiser near the entrance of Connaught Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone August 16, 2017. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

Image Caption and Rights Information

Dozens of houses were engulfed by mud when a mountainside collapsed in the town of Regent, on the edge of Freetown

DAKAR, Aug 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Donor pledges are pouring in from countries across the world to aid Sierra Leone after a mudslide devastated the capital this week, killing at least 400 people and leaving 3,000 homeless.

Dozens of houses were engulfed by mud when a mountainside collapsed in the town of Regent, on the edge of Freetown, on Monday - in one of Africa's deadliest mudslides in decades.

The death toll is expected to rise as the search for missing people continues. More than 600 people are missing, the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society said.

Aid agencies are racing to provide food, shelter and healthcare to the homeless, and prevent outbreaks of dangerous water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid.

Below is a list of the financial pledges announced by countries to provide emergency aid to Sierra Leone.

Countries including Israel and Ivory Coast announced they would send aid from food and medicine to water and blankets, while other nations such as Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria pledged their support but did not say how much they would spend.

These unspecified pledges are not included below.

BRITAIN - 5 million pounds ($6.5 million)

CHINA - $1 million

TOGO - $500,000

IRELAND - 400,000 EUR ($470,000)

SWITZERLAND - 400,000 CHF ($415,000)

EUROPEAN UNION - 300,000 EUR ($350,000)

ECOWAS (West African regional bloc) - $300,000

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - $100,000

SENEGAL - $100,000

SOURCES: Donor countries, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Sierra Leone's government website. ($1 = 0.7765 pounds / 0.9615 Swiss francs / 0.8519 euros)

(Writing By Kieran Guilbert, Editing by Astrid Zweynert @azweynert. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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