Building collapse death toll in Cameroon rises to 33

BY BINTU JIDDA KANEMPRESS

24TH JULY, 2023

Thirty-three people have died after teams from Cameroon’s fire brigade, the Red Cross and others rescue services continued working at Douala’s Ange Raphaël neighbourhood, the scene of a building collapse.

The building collapse happened when a building collapsed onto another residential block in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The cause of the building collapse is still unknown.

About 21 people who sustained injuries, are receiving treatment at the nearby Laquintinie Hospital.

Earlier, 16 people and five others sustain injuries.
Three children and 10 adults were under emergency care at nearby Laquintinie Hospital.

Another report say a three-year-old girl who was earlier brought in there died.

There was no exact number of people inside the four-storey building in Cameroon’s biggest city, Douala, when it collapsed.

Head of Cameroon’s Housing Regulator, Order of Civil Engineers, Kizito Ngoa,
expressed his disappointment at the loss of lives.

Ngoa was so sad that despite strides recorded in recent years to improve safety.

“We’d been happy not to have had any such disasters for a while now – especially in Douala where the mayor is really trying to bring order,”
Ngoa said.
.
“Government had reminded those planning to build homes in Douala that they must first get an official permit and then “stick rigorously to the approved design”, said

Mr Ngoa said that the failure to follow planning rules is one of the biggest causes of building collapses across Cameroon.

“There is a widespread feeling that everyone can just do what they want” and “there is obviously this desire to save money at all stages of a project”.

“Sometimes council workers are complicit in this, he says, and when sanctions and inquiries do happen they are not publicised enough”, Ngoa said.

The regional governor, Samuel Dieudonné Ivaha Diboua, had earlier reassured citizens, saying the situation is under control and rescue teams will make sure nobody is left beneath the wreckage.

There was no immediate knowledge of what caused the building collapse in Douala’s Ange Raphael neighbourhood but residents attributed it to be dilapidated.

City authorities have been demolishing homes at risk of flooding or landslides.

Building collapses are common in Cameroon.