A huge fire has broken out and gutted some 37 makeshift stores containing an unspecified number of bags of rice belonging to farmers of Sengama village, Sorogbema chiefdom in the southern Sierra Leone district of Pujehun.
The incident started when a young man set fire to a farmland just few meters away from the settlement. Residents have blamed it on strong wind.
The local Member of Parliament, Sidi Yayah Tunis of Constituency 91 visited the area on the following day and gave some support to people displaced by the incident. He has launched a formal appeal for assistance.
Office of National Security at the Pujehun district council, World Vision and the Red Cross have also been to the area to assess the extent of the damage and to provide some support.
Elsewhere in the district there have been allegations of a serious confrontation between residents of Gissiwulo and Dar Es Salam in the Makpele chiefdom over a mining plot of land. Both villages continue to lay claims to the lucrative piece of land.
Reports say the situation was so tense that youths mobilised and invaded the chiefdom headquarter town of Zimmi.
Tunis has confirmed the incident adding that government has already banned mining in the area because of “the rising state of insecurity”.
He assured that based on his recent tour of the area, mining activities would resume by next week and that calm had returned.
