Cameroon leader vows action after deadly crash

Cameroon’s President Paul Biya on Sunday pledged to investigate the causes of a rail crash that killed at least 75 people, as rescue workers scoured wreckage for more bodies.

The packed passenger train carrying more than 1,400 people between the capital Yaounde and the central African country’s port city of Douala derailed on Friday near the town of Eseka, causing carriages to flip over at high speed.

Two days later, some were still seeking news of friends and family members on handwritten lists of passengers pinned up outside medical centres in the two cities. On Sunday, the government appealed for additional blood donations to assist with the treatment of some 600 people who suffered injuries.

“I have ordered an indepth inquiry into the causes of this accident,” Biya told state TV in French on returning to Cameroon on Sunday afternoon after a trip in Europe. “I have ordered for victims’ (medical) costs to be paid for by the state,” he added.

Operator Camrail, a unit of French industrial group Bollore, said on Sunday it had set up a special train service to fetch bodies from the crash site.