39 years after Lake Nyos gas disaster: Bum Paramount Fon decries abandonment of victims.

He stated that the State has also not done anything to victims in the resettlement camps of Buabua and Kimbi in Bum Subdivision.

"...the resettlement camps were abandoned and today, they lie in ruins, schools deserted, roads impassable, no drinking water, no network, no future. The ongoing crisis has worsened their misery; leaving camps in ashes and survivors in despair," he said.

Such neglect by the government and its partners, the Monarch averred, is like "salt poured into our deepest wounds. Even as time passes, the pain of the Lake Nyos disaster is renewed by the continued suffering of our people".

He insisted that the neglect of the victims in Bum Subdivision is a great injustice from the government. 

"On this 21st of August, we shed tears, not only for those we lost, but also for the injustice that continues,” he said.

The Ring Road project, the Fon stated in his message, “was deliberately halted at Misaje, carefully excluding the Kimbi and Su-Bum stretches- roads that are not only part of the Ring Road, but also vital access to the Lake Nyos resettlement camps. This is another wound, another betrayal, another salt poured upon us".

He begged the government and the President of the Republic, Paul Biya, in particular, not to forget the Lake Nyos survivors of Bum origin. 

The Fon said Bum was the biggest victim of the disaster in terms of human casualties, given that Subum, where most of the deaths were recorded, was the epicentre of life in Bum.

 "Our appeal is not just for remembrance, but for justice, development, and dignity for the victims, the survivors, and their descendants," he stated.

Recalling the disaster 

The traditional ruler stated that at sun up on August 21, 1986, silence gripped the community with the smell of death enveloping the town of Subum. 

On that day, he stated that "...we awoke to a silence that was not ordinary. A silence where the birds no longer sang, a silence where the laughter of children was absent, a silence where even the breath of life had been stolen”.

He added that on that day, they “…rose only to find that our loved ones were gone, taken without even the chance to say goodbye".

The Fon also recounted his experience transporting victims to Nkambe and seeing corpses and dead animals scattered all over the community then.

It should be recalled that Bum Subdivision recorded the highest casualty from the disaster, including the loss of the Fon of Sawi, His Majesty Mbanga, the then President of the Bum Customary Court and some members of his Traditional Council.

The Lake Nyos disaster, reports hold, claimed almost 2,000 lives. Most of the victims from Subum were resettled in Buabua and Kimbi. 

However, despite government’s efforts to assist them, the Fon said the efforts are limited, leaving the victims in distress.

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3541 of Friday August 22, 2025