EDWARD H. STEMN
Africa-Press – Liberia. At least seven people have been reported dead and several others wounded after a four-story building collapsed in Pleebo, Maryland County.
The building, believed to have been constructed in the 1960s, reportedly collapsed when a group of Fula women had gone to visit one of their colleagues, Binta Diallo, who had just returned from a pilgrimage to Mecca, the holy city of the Muslim religion.
Many blamed the collapse, which occurred on October 1, on the large number of people who visited the house, as the building, constructed with a wooden floor, has, according to many, outlived its usefulness.
The visitors, according to reports, numbered a little over thirty persons, and all of them allegedly went upstairs, where Binta resides, to greet her. It was during this time that the building came crashing down.
When the incident occurred, the victims were rushed to the Pleebo health center for immediate medical attention. However, on October 2, seven of the victims of the incident were pronounced dead by health practitioners. Those severely wounded were referred to the Joseph Jenkins Dossen Hospital in Harper, where they are still undergoing treatment.
The seven deceased included six women and a four-year-old girl. The sad incident has since plunged Pleebo into mourning, drawing a huge crowd from across the district.
Businesses in the area have been closed since the incident occurred as the residents mourn the loss of the Fula and Muslim community. The building, whose plank floor collapsed, contains a shop on the ground floor, where building materials are sold, including wheelbarrows, cutlasses, steel rods, and other sharp instruments that seriously injured the victims as they fell from the floor.
The victims have since been buried. Sympathizing with the Muslim community, House Speaker, Bohfal Chambers, on behalf of the Legislature and the Government has extended words of condolence to them and said that the government is concerned about the tragic incident. He called on them to take solace in the Almighty Allah.
He donated LD$100K to the Fulani community as “his goodwill gesture to identify with them during this time of bereavement.”
Chambers then suspended his campaign activities on Monday due to the tragic incident and called on citizens and residents of Pleebo Sodoken district to empathize with the Fula community as the death of the seven women was unimaginable.
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