Rescue workers have found 12 bodies after landslides buried a road in western Cameroon, a local official reported on Saturday, stating that there is no expectation of locating any survivors.
State television CRTV relayed the statement made by Augustine Awa Fonka, the governor of the Ouest region.
“In our opinion there is no longer any possibility of finding survivors,” he told the station.
“Only 12 bodies had been recovered from the site of the disaster, the last of them on Saturday morning, he added.
“Dozens more people are still missing, and the search for bodies is still continuing”, he added.
Two landslides occured at the Dschang cliff road on Tuesday, the second struck as emergency workers used heavy machines to clear the road.
According to Awa Fonka, vehichles hit by the landslides include three 20-seater coaches, five six-seater vehicles and several motorbikes.
According to the latest data from the World Health Organisation(WHO), released in 2023, Cameroon’s roads are notoriously dangerous with almost 3,000 deaths each year in accidents, or more than ten deaths per 100,000 people.
In early September, a tractor-trailer carrying passengers plunged off a cliff road into a ravine near the town of Dschang, killing eight people and injuring 62 others, including eight children.
