The fuel tragedy that sent Sierra Leone reeling is a stark reminder of how post civil war reforms have not necessarily culminated in the safety and wellbeing of large sections of the impoverished population.
APA’s correspondent in Freetown says this is especially hopeless with ordinary citizens who always pay a very heavy price for growing insecurity that many say led to the oil tanker disaster in the capital on November 5, 2021, claiming over 100 lives and overwhelming hospitals and healthcare facilities with the charred bodies of victims – survivors and the dead.
According to Abu Bakr Jalloh, many suggested that the scene where the oil tanker was rammed into by a truck should have been immediately cordoned off to prevent, among other things, people desperate to earn a living from scooping the leaking petrol from the ill-fated fuel carrier.
Fireballs from the explosion spread so fast and destroyed so many lives and properties primarily thanks to the perennial problems caused by overcrowding.
Traffic was disrupted as people carted the fuel away, which lasted for over thirty minutes before tragedy struck.
Jalloh says there was the same disconnect between reforms, and the security and wellbeing of Sierra Leoneans when the catastrophic 2015 Ebola outbreak killed over 4,000 people.
The same scenario played out two years later when a deadly mudslide swept through the capital Freetown and killed over 100 people.
The demographics have changed since the mid-1990s but it seems post-conflict Sierra Leone has not been able to adequately respond to the rapid urbanization that took place during and after the civil war.
The brutal conflict that lasted from 1991-2002, in which over 70,000 perished and displaced about half of the population forced many citizens to seek refuge in towns and cities, particularly Freetown.
Now over half of Sierra Leone’s population lives in cities and urban settlements, according to latest data from the UN.
How many Sierra Leoneans are in unsafe, unhealthy and unhappy communities, including slums where they live in extremely squalid conditions?
It is anybody’s guess but what is clear is that the quality of housing, water, sanitation, transportation and infrastructure across Freetown and other populated cities and towns have been an eternal cause for concern.
ABJ/APA