ADDS GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL COMMENTS, DEATH TOLL
By Aurore Bonny
DOUALA, Cameroun (AA) - Lifeless bodies were pulled out from under a landslide in Cameroon on Monday following torrential rains in Yaounde, the capital of the Central African country, local sources reported.
Several people remain missing after the incident on Sunday in a place called Mbankolo, where "a water retention dam that had been built since colonial times broke," District Mayor Yannick Ayissi told journalists. Mbankolo is located on the outskirts of Yaounde.
"The waters flowing from the mountains swept away the houses built below," Aussi said, confirming the deaths of several people, including women and children.
However, he said authorities could not provide an exact death toll at the moment.
Locals said a dyke broke and unleashed the mudflow, while rescue efforts are being led by firefighters, according to public broadcaster Cameroon Radio and Television News (CRTV News).
Some 20 houses were destroyed, according to the same source. No official sources have given exact figures on the number of missing and dead.
In the early hours of Monday morning, emergency services that were on the ground during the night were still not on the scene, according to reports.
Locals are pulling bodies out from under the debris, according to local media.
"Since our arrival at the site, we haven't found the fire department, it's the people themselves who are trying to pull the bodies out of the rubble," reported local radio station Radio Balafon.
In the middle of the day, local authorities took to the field and reported a provisional toll of 30 people dead and 17 others injured.
"People there are destroying trees to build houses, and so the buildings are made even more fragile by the regular torrential rains," a Yaounde resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Anadolu by phone.
Describing the tragedy "with great sadness," Celestine Ketcha Courtes, the minister of Housing and Urban Development, said on X that it was a "dramatic situation that has become repetitive" in Cameroon's cities.
She appealed to the population to strictly respect the planning documents available in the Communes and the texts governing urban planning.
To deal with the most urgent situation, the ministry has ordered the identification and relocation of all occupants still living in at-risk areas, to avoid further tragedies, as the weather forecast predicts further torrential rains, as stated in its July 14 press release.