Eseka train disaster: Shameless delay on publication of Philemon Yang inquiry ⁰

Two months after the Eseka train tragedy which occurred on the 21^st of October 2016, some 128 km from Yaoundé the nation’s capital, mystery still persists on the official causes of the tragedy. The CPDM government is yet to establish the responsibilities and role played by prominent officials prior to and after the crash.

Four days after the accident which officially claimed the lives of 79 people and wounded over 600, President Paul Biya, on leave at the time of the events, and whose drama had precipitated his return to the country, announced that his government was determine to make public the causes of the railway accident and to propose measures to limit the risk of the occurrence of such a catastrophe in the future.

After a month’s work, the commission created by the Cameroonian dictator and headed by the Prime Minister handed over its findings to the Head of State. The presidency has not made any official declaration on the subject. Access to the site was highly secured and many journalists were prevented from visiting the crashed wagons of the Inter city service 152. Consequently, Cameroonians are still unaware of the real causes of the train accident which cost the lives of several of their compatriots.

The President of Bolloré Africa Railways was quoted as saying that the train was running at an “abnormally high” speed before the derailment. The various investigative commissions set up by the judicial police in Yaoundé and announced by the public prosecutor at the Mfoundi and Nyong-et-Ekelle High Court (Eseka), seem to have disappeared.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai