At least 42 people were killed in the night from Monday (October 28th) to Tuesday October 29th in a landslide in Bafoussam, western Cameroon. This assessment "remains provisional", according to an official statement read on state radio. According to the same media, four pregnant women are among the dead.
According to the correspondent of France 24 in Yaoundé, Marcel Amoko, the research was suspended at nightfall. The journalist confirms that 42 bodies were removed from the rubble, including many children. "Fifty people are still missing, which suggests that this toll could still increase."
"The balance sheet could get heavier"
"We are here in Cameron during the rainy season, which has weakened the clay soil of this mountainous region," said the correspondent. "At least 11 houses were completely buried, houses built on the mountainside," he said, authorities said the area was dangerous and said they had even asked the population to clear. turned a deaf ear to the drama of last night. "
Photos circulating on social networks show houses in briquettes or mud, and tin roofs, collapsed on the side or bottom of a red ocher earth hill. Men with hard hats and shovels search the thick mud below.
Aid of five million CFA francs
The landslide "occurred Monday around 22 pm while the inhabitants were preparing to go to bed," says Marcel Amoko. "And it was only this morning that relief was able to get organized and the authorities were able to go there with the announcement of an aid of five million CFA francs, about 7,000 euros."
Cameroonian President Paul Biya offered his condolences to the families of the victims.
The rainy season is currently raging in western Cameroon, but it is almost all of Central Africa that is suffering, in recent days, precipitations of a very high intensity.
With AFP