Mbankolo landslide kills 30, survivors speak to CNA

By Nambu Bernadette Franka, back from Mbankolo

At the Mbankolo neighborhood in the Yaounde 2 Council area, everyone who came to witness the scene was moody, walking on muddy roads- passing beside what used to be called houses, now displaced. Where the houses were, “crater lakes” could be seen on the site of the incident early Monday. Voices could be heard from a distance, the digging, the lifting; and the long search for survivors started around 6 AM. It is Monday, October 9, 2023, the day started with the terrible news that left every Cameroonian worried about the unprecedented landslide in the Mbankolo area.

The rescue unit of the army had worked all night until 1 AM when they retired promising to resume at cockcrow.

As the rescue team resumed early Monday, the death toll began to increase – from 3, it climbed to 12, then 13 and 30 before 5 PM, the time this reporter left the site. More than 20 are also said to have been taken to the hospital for treatment.

Survivors were stuck in the debris while others were simply not found- family members moved around wailing and pointing in the direction of their houses- they saw their lives and all they had worked for, reduced to nothing.

Rescue operations are ongoing at the incident site, and locals gathered to lend support to rescue units-picture by CNA reporter, Nambu Bernadette Franka

Victims and survivors of Sunday’s landslide expressed pain, despair, and desperation, for the loss of their loved ones.

The landslide occurred in the Mbankolo neighborhood in Yaounde 2 Municipality, at about 9 pm on Sunday, October 8, 2023. Experts on the site blamed the incident on the rapture of a dike retaining the waters of an artificial lake whose bounds swelled.

But the dike gave way because of a downpour that Sunday. These heavy rains freed the dike to pour its anger on the population.

“We were already asleep because of the rain. Then we heard a heavy sound, pushing us outside. The flood took down so many houses and the lives of many people. One man who was standing outside shouted and almost entered the water upon seeing his house go down with his entire family inside including a three-week-old baby. It’s a miracle that the baby was found alive after the incident,” one of the victims Ornella Gouama recounted to CNA.

“I went for a meeting and the rain blocked me. My wife and kids were home and unfortunately, they were carried away by the flood. When I got home, I had to identify where my home was and indicate the number of people that were inside so their corpses could be found. So far, they have seen just that of the kids we a still searching for my wife” another victim said.

Minister of Town Planning and Urban Development, Celestine, talking to the media, while Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, looked up.

An eyewitness who has been there throughout the search of corpses recounted; “Since last night, we have been struggling to retrieve the people buried by this landslide. Whenever someone that was not home at the time comes to the site, he indicates where their house was located and tells us the number of people that were home, then we start the search in that area,”.

The Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji who also visited the site, asked the people living in the area to evacuate for their safety. He further said humanitarian assistance is being prepared for the victims from the Head of State.

This landslide occurred just a year after about 15 people died from a landslide in the Damas neighborhood in Yaounde.