‘Dead white person’s clothes’ mount up as Ghana’s Kantamanto market struggles to rebuild after fire

Six weeks after a devastating blaze in Accra ripped through one of the world’s biggest secondhand markets, many stalls remain unfinished and thousands still have no income

It was a blaze that left two people dead and destroyed the fabric of one of the world’s largest secondhand clothes markets. It also wiped out the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in a matter of hours.

Six weeks on from the 1 January fire in Ghana’s capital, Accra, the aluminium roofing has been replaced and wooden frames have been erected, but many stalls remain unfinished and empty. In the heart of the market, the sound of hammering and building work fills the air. Vendors mill around with little to sell. The narrow passageways – once so rammed with customers there was a stampede two months ago – are easy to pass through.

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