NPR

As Rain Keeps Falling, Sierra Leone Scrambles To Find Mudslide Survivors

Idalia Amaya, an emergency response coordinator for Catholic Relief Services, says the top priority is rescuing people trapped in their homes under the mud.
Search and rescue team members and soldiers work near a mudslide site and a damaged building near Freetown, Sierra Leone, on Tuesday. / SAIDU BAH / Getty Images

Sierra Leone, a country that has been battered by Ebola, civil war and massive floods, suffered yet another tragedy this week. Government and international aid workers are racing the clock to find survivors after a mudslide struck capital city Freetown early Monday morning.

Some 600 people are still missing, and there are reports that some people are still alive, trapped in their homes underneath the mud.

At the same time, aid groups are trying to support roughly 9,000 people — who

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