On Thursday, authorities reported that Cameroon would begin evacuating residents from high-risk areas in different parts of the country threatened by heavy rains and landslides.
“We will no longer tolerate people living in these zones. People die when we remain tolerant. Henceforth, we will no longer allow construction in high-risk zones,” the country’s Minister of Territorial Administration Paul Atanga Nji told reporters after a cabinet meeting with the prime minister.
Early Thursday, Emmanuel Mariel Djikdent, the prefect of Mfoundi division where the capital, Yaounde, is located, ordered residents of the Ngousso neighborhood of the capital to vacate the area because “serious cracks were noted on a slope supporting homes in Ngousso, with a high risk of a landslide.”
The measures followed landslides triggered by heavy downpours that killed 30 people in Yaounde Sunday.
No resettlement measures have been provided, and the evacuation process is likely to affect more than 50,000 people nationwide, experts said.
On Wednesday, Minister of Transport Jean Ernest Massena Ngalle Bibehe warned that the Central African nation will experience heavy rains, sometimes followed by violent winds, throughout October and November in six regions.
On October 8, at least 30 people were killed and 20 injured after a landslide swept through the Mbangkolo neighborhood in Yaoundé, the capital of Cameroon.
According to several reports, the landslide was caused due to several hours of heavy rains that led to the collapse of a century-old colonial-era dam located on the Mbangkolo hills in Yaounde. A wave of water was released from a human-made lake that flattened buildings, uprooted trees and swept away dozens of people.
President Paul Biya has ordered rescue efforts like distributing mattresses and blankets for the survivors.
Source: Telesur
