Building collapse in Cameroon claims 12

BY ABBAS MUSA KANEMPRESS

24TH JULY, 2023

Teams from Cameroon’s fire brigade, the Red Cross and others rescue services are still working at the scene of a building collapsed.

This followed the deaths of 12 people while five others sustain injuries when a building collapsed onto another residential block in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Three children and 10 adults are receiving emergency care at nearby Laquintinie Hospital.

Staff there say a three-year-old girl who was brought in has died.

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

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

It is not known what caused the building in Douala’s Ange Raphael neighbourhood to collapse, but residents said it could be dilapidated.

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

Building collapses are common in Cameroon.