Landslide in Cameroon kills at least 11

A landslide in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde killed at least 11 people attending a funeral on Sunday, a local official told state media.

The victims had gathered at the top of a hill for a memorial service for five people when the ground collapsed under part of the audience.

“Some were sitting in a tent where there was a landslide early this evening,” Paul Bea, governor of the Centre region that includes Yaounde, told state radio. He added that rescue efforts were ongoing. The search had been suspended late Sunday evening before a planned resumption yesterday morning, a rescue worker at the scene told AFP.

Marie Claire Mendouga, 50, attended the ceremony but her tent was not affected by the landslide.

“We had just started to dance when the ground collapsed,” she told AFP.

She said she ‘went to dig with my hands’ to try to get people out from under the earth, and was still covered in the brown clay from the site. The disaster took place in Yaounde’s workingclass district of Damas, on its eastern outskirts.

Four large white tents were on the hill’s summit, at the edge of what seemed to be a ridge, beyond which the ground had disappeared, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Police pick-up trucks were hauling away bodies covered by white sheets early on Sunday evening. A police cordon prevented journalists from getting closer to the scene.