“When the ground opened”: Responsibility for harms and rights violations in disasters – Insights from Sierra Leone

So-called “natural” disasters are often characterized by major human rights abuses, yet responsibility and accountability for such violations have attracted relatively limited attention in research practice. Instead, these events survivors’ suffering dismissed as “acts of God” or tragic misfortunes. Through analysis an under-examined disaster—the 2017 mudslide Freetown, Sierra Leone—this article probes perspectives on disasters, accompanying them. While survivors this case attribute to God other supernatural forces, they also understand the state earthly actors sharing different forms degrees disaster its harmful consequences. Indeed, seeing “act does not absolve from obligation protect citizens harms associated with subsequent response efforts. Survivors’ provide significant insight into challenge advancing contexts.