Floods displace 2 000 in Cameroon

[iolsa]

Yaounde -  

More than 2 000 people have been displaced in northern Cameroon by floods from a leaking dam, officials said on Wednesday, while warning that more of the dam may soon give way.

An estimated 685 houses have been damaged and 204 destroyed in the city of Kousseri in the north of the western African nation since the first cracks appeared in the dam this week.

Heavy rains have affected the region since August, killing 12 people and leaving another missing.

"Sandbags have been placed where the dam threatens to give way,"  regional official Ernest Ewango Budu told dpa.

"A crisis committee has been established to identify and resettle the victims."

Camps were being set up, but would be too small to accommodate all the displaced people, he said.

"Some are forced to sleep under the stars in the town square," Kousseri mayor Mahamat Abdoukarim said.

In September, a United Nations assessment found that 60 000 people have been affected by the recent floods in northern Cameroon. - Sapa-dpa



IOLSA