Landslide survivor
Many buried under the ground
BY Monica EBOH Akama
In Dschang the West Region of Cameroon, a double landslide has claimed the lives of at least four persons and buried others in their vehicles in on Tuesday November 5, 2024, state officials have confirmed.
“The provisional death toll stands at four” and “searches are continuing on the ground to find the bodies of other victims of this natural disaster”, said West regional governor Augustine Awa Fonka.
The first landslide occurred mid-morning on the Dschang cliff road, an accident-prone stretch running through a mountainous area of the central African nation, Awa Fonka told reporters.
It temporarily cut off traffic and emergency workers cleared the road using heavy construction machinery, according to the governor.
A second “large-scale” landslide that occurred during the work buried “three heavy machines involved in the clearing”, three coaches with around 20 seats each, five six-seater vehicles, several motorbikes, passers-by, and local residents, Awa Fonka said in a statement.
Authorities blocked traffic and asked local people to stay away from the area, which was at high risk of landslides.
Cameroon’s roads are notoriously dangerous, with almost 3,000 deaths each year in accidents, or more than 10 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, published in 2023.
In early September, a tractor-trailer carrying passengers plunged off a cliff road into a ravine near the town of Dschang, killing eight people and injuring 62 others, including eight children.
