Fatmata Sesay

A massive mudslide killed over 1000 people, many buried alive while sleeping, in the early morning of August 14, 2017. It was the worst (but not the first) of such disasters to occur in Freetown, where coastal mountains are overpopulated by impoverished people who cannot afford plots on more levelled terrain. Up to 120 to 150 inches of rain can fall on Freetown during their six-month rain season.

Fatmata Sesay, age 42, lost her lower left leg. In July 2020, almost 5 years after losing her leg in a mudslide, Fatmata Sesay was fitted with a prosthetic lower left leg by Abu Benjamin Tarawallie, the Founding Director of Africa Surgery’s new partner organization, ORMS.