- Heavy rains trigger deadly landslides.
- Yaoundé’s Mbankolo neighborhood hardest hit.
- Climate change increases flood risks.
The emergency services report that heavy rains in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon, have triggered landslides, resulting in at least thirty deaths.
A local radio station reported that many individuals remain unaccounted for, bringing the estimated death toll to forty.
Debris blocked rescue efforts, forcing locals to use their bare hands to extract victims.
On Sunday, heavy rainfall caused the Mefou River to overflow, inundating multiple neighborhoods.
The most severely affected area was the impoverished neighborhood of Mbankolo, where numerous homes were precariously constructed on a slope.
Local resident Ymele Guy shared his experience, revealing that he lost his child in the flooding.
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“I witnessed the disaster, and just as I was informing my wife about the dire situation, in a split second, my children and I were submerged,” he said. “I managed to rescue at least three of my children and my wife, but my fourth child was swept away by the rain.”
Cathérine Jouego reported that her pregnant sister remained buried beneath the rubble.
“I haven’t been able to locate my sister. She got married in April, and all seven family members, including her in-laws, perished at this location. So far, we’ve recovered five bodies; my sister and a young girl are the remaining two.”
Yaoundé’s rainy season is prone to landslides, and last year a soil embankment fall killed at least fourteen funeral attendants.
A residential block turned into a rescue and resident passage after Sunday’s severe water.
Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji urged residents, both local and non-residents, to evacuate the area due to unstable soil conditions. However, many residents remained due to ongoing construction of temporary housing.
“We are organizing rescue efforts, including providing blankets, mattresses, and other necessities,” he said, noting that a three-month-old infant was among those rescued.
Communities like Mbankolo, marked by poverty and inadequate infrastructure, are more susceptible to severe weather events such as heavy rainfall, which climate experts from the United Nations attribute to climate change.
Neighboring Nigeria issued flood warnings for nine states on Saturday as Cameroon released water from the Lagdo Dam, a release expected to continue until the end of the month, according to Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Due to heavy rains in the north, Cameroon expected dam releases through October.
Officials noted that only a minimal amount of the release would be made public. Last year, dam releases caused flooding and deaths in Nigeria, mainly in Benue state near Cameroon.
