Editorial: Cameroon's hidden disaster!.

On social networks, people from Diamaré, Logone and Chari, Mayo-Tsanaga and Mayo-Sava Divisions "are outraged and... are calling on the Head of State for help", according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Cameroon, OCHA. 

In its own assessment last week, the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, noted that the situation is dire. 

"Severe flooding in Cameroon's Far North Region has affected over 158,620 people, including 38,069 women of reproductive age and 4,133 pregnant women,” UNFPA detailed. 

"The hardest-hit areas are Mayo-Tsanaga, Mayo-Danay, and Logone-and-Chari Divisions, with significant damage to infrastructure, farmland, and disruption of essential services. 

UNFPA has deployed midwives and social workers to affected areas. The body is also coordinating with partners to track displacement and assess needs," it added. 

The report furthered that UNFPA-supported health facilities continue to operate in some areas, providing essential services. 

The response efforts are focusing on food security, shelter, non-food items, health and water, hygiene and sanitation.

"Ongoing heavy rains and the risk of disease outbreaks, including cholera, pose additional challenges to the humanitarian response. UNFPA is urgently appealing for USD 1,174,045 to scale up interventions in flood-affected areas, targeting 129,149 people," the UN agency detailed. 

Before the flood disaster, the National Observatory on Climate Change, NOCC, had warned in its climate forecasts and alerts that significant precipitation was particularly expected in the Far North Region.

It indicated a risk of destruction of residential homes and public buildings in many localities, “caused by rains that will be accompanied by violent winds, lightning and even hail”.

In its latest report on the situation in the Far North Region, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, reports that "nearly 8,700 houses have already been destroyed by the waters. Seven people also died and eight injuries were recorded."

It is a serious national disaster that would have required Yaounde to at least send a team of experts and humanitarian personnel to the Region, to assess the situation and provide assistance, as has in the past, been done, in similar situations like was the case with the mudslides and flooding in Mbankolo last year. 

Unlike the Mbankolo incident near Yaounde, for instance, the people residing in the risky zones were not warned of any impending disaster.

Why didn't those in the Far North Region not heed the alert and leave? Even if they were ignorant of the impending catastrophe as is often the case with ill-informed inhabitants in such remote villages, why did the authorities not relocate them to safer grounds?

Yesterday, it was the case of the Far North Region. Before that, there have been identical natural calamities, notably in the Littoral, South West, West and North West Regions of the country; which should have been avoided.

Why do municipal authorities in such perilous areas, which have been declared "risky" by experts, continue to allow people to build and reside there?

The current disaster in the Far North Region would have been avoided, if municipal authorities in the affected areas had compelled the recalcitrant residents to evacuate.

They didn't and now some seven compatriots have lost their lives and thousands of others without a shelter. 

The Yaounde regime cannot forget them and be indifferent to their plight, even if it is not on the front pages of the media.

That is why The Guardian Post is appealing to government not to leave the victims in the lurch but offer humanitarian assistance as soon as possible.

It should also be a lesson for others in risky zones, many of whom are often reluctant to evacuate because they are usually not provided where to relocate to. 

The Guardian Post urges government to not just ask them to relocate but should provide alternative conducive areas so as to avoid the perennial floods and landslides that imperil the lives of fellow compatriots and destroy their properties and sources of livelihood.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3226 of Wednesday September 11, 2024