29, November 2022
Yaoundé Landslide: Rescue workers still searching for victims 0
Rescue workers in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, are searching for people believed trapped under a landslide that killed at least 14 people and injured scores more Sunday. The victims were attending a funeral when the landslide occurred.
Civilians mourn as they join rescue workers in digging and searching for people they fear are trapped underneath a huge pile of debris.
The soil and stones collapsed Sunday evening on several hundred community members from Cameroon’s west region who had gathered for a funeral of people who died within the past month.
Rosette Ngeufack, 50, is among the mourners. She says she saw the ground collapse on scores of people including her two sons.Ngeufack says she is still searching for her 24-year-old son who was buried by the landslide alongside his motorcycle. She says she left the Yaounde central hospital at 2 a.m. after hospital staff reassured her that her 21-year-old son, also a victim of the landslide, is responding to treatment.
It is a tradition in Cameroon for communities to organize funeral events in towns after burial of their community members in villages.
People who attended the funeral prior to the landslide said they had prayed for the departed and were sharing drinks and food when the unfortunate incident occurred.
Nasseri Paul Bea, governor of Cameroon’s center region where Yaounde is located, visited the disaster site for the second time within 15 hours on Monday morning. He says that investigations carried out by Cameroon police indicate that some civilians are still trapped in the landslide.
Bea says he asked the government for more troops to assist rescue workers who for the past 14 hours have been searching for people. He says bodies removed from the disaster site are identified by the police and taken to the mortuary of the central hospital in Yaounde and then eventually to their family members.
Cameroon’s government says the landslide occurred when an 18-meter-high embankment collapsed on several hundred civilians attending a funeral in a house constructed in a risky area.
Bea said the embankment that gave way was not solid enough to stop the soil from collapsing.
Cameroon’s Housing Ministry Monday asked people living in areas deemed at risk of landslides to immediately to leave or be forced to relocate.
Yaounde, a city of about 3 million people, has had devastating floods caused by heavy rains within the past three months. The government says more than 25 houses constructed in risky areas have collapsed, injuring and killing scores of people.
Source: VOA
30, November 2022
Bui Division: Bloody day in Banten as 3 Southern Cameroonians killed by Francophone soldiers 0
Cameroon government forces have killed three Southern Cameroonians during an early morning raid in Banten, a village located in Bui Division in the North West Region in the latest onslaught that has made 2022 the deadliest year of violence ever since the beginning of the Anglophone uprising in 2016.
The fatalities included two Southern Cameroonian brothers, identified by our correspondent in Bui as Faraih, a Douala based mechanic and his brother Walidu, a local bike rider who were reportedly visiting their granny. Our reporter in Kumbo, the chief town in Bui also stated that the two siblings were fatally shot after the Francophone army soldiers had stormed the residence of a local granddad identified as Pa Kongnyuy and murdered him on his sick bed.
Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that Faraih was shot in the pelvis while his brother Walidu was shot in the chest. A local trader, who had bought two brand new bikes for retail, saw his precious goods burnt completely.
The Cameroon government troops left their base in Tahkija, Nkum Sub division in Bui and started the raids on Banten as early as 2:00 am on Monday November 28 2022.
A Banten resident contacted by CIR said the French speaking soldiers entered the village centre commonly referred to as Sanheiri breaking into houses and shops “And after looting and spending the day in the court yards feasting on stolen goods and even roasting a pig in front of the Central Mosque, the soldiers then moved through the village centre down into the valley where the local Catholic Church is located. The doors of the Catholic Church Banten were forced open and the sacred tabernacle where the Holy Eucharist is kept was emptied”.
This item is still developing
By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai with files from Bui