On the night of 13 August 2017, the city of Freetown and its outskirts experienced torrential rains and mudslides that continued well into the morning of 14 August 2017. This resulted in 496 fatalities and roughly 800 missing persons. The government counts 5.905 affected individuals and an estimated 80% of that amount relates to flood victims.

In response to the request for urgent assistance, the UN Resident Coordinator has activated the United Nations disaster response for the affected areas and designated the Country Director and Representative of the World Food Programme (WFP) as Incident Manager for this crisis. 

WFP,  Global lead of the ETC, conducted a one-week Information and Communications Technology (ICT) assessment mission in Sierra Leone which started on 21 August to evaluate capacity and operational status of the existing voice and data services available to the response community, and to identify gaps and potential needs for common ICT services to support the humanitarian response. 

To coordinate the efforts from the humanitarian community on the ground, local ICT Working Group meetings are being held. Organisations are encouraged to share the contact details from partners in Sierra Leone with the Global ETC Cell: Global.ETC@wfp.org