Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé, has witnessed a tragic landslide resulting from heavy rainfall, claiming the lives of at least 23 individuals, as confirmed by firefighters on Monday.
During the rainy season in Yaoundé, landslides are a recurring occurrence, primarily due to the precarious construction of houses on the numerous hills within the city.
The most recent incident took place late on Sunday in the district of Mbankolo, located to the northwest of Yaoundé.
“Yesterday we pulled out 15 people who had died and this morning we have found eight. We are still looking,” the fire service’s second in command David Petatoa Poufong told reporters.
The torrential rains led to the rupture of a levee that was containing an artificial lake situated at a higher elevation, as reported by the public broadcaster CRTV.
Television broadcasts displayed images of an entire section of a hill that had collapsed, revealing the remnants of houses seemingly constructed from wood, dried earth bricks, and metal sheeting.
Daouda Ousmanou, a local administrative official, announced on public radio, “There was a landslide after heavy rain. The water swept away everything in its path.”
Back in November, a tragic incident occurred in Yaoundé’s working-class district of Damas, located on its eastern outskirts, where at least 15 individuals lost their lives when a landslide struck members of a funeral gathering.
