Reports from the Cameroons now indicates that the derailed train en route to Douala from Yaounde has claimed the lives of 55 Cameroonians. This includes women and children. 555 more people are seriously wounded amidst death toll expected to rise.
The accident happened on Friday 21st October at Eseka. This came after the collapsed of a bridge on the Yaounde-Douala highway some 65 km from Yaoundé.
As many Cameroonians who wanted to travel were advised by the transport Minister to use the train service to travel Camrail added 8 coaches to ENHANCE the movement but it seems the locomotive engine capacity was not powered to pull 8 new additional coaches.
This incident brings to light a serious questioning of Cameroons states of the road and rails especially maintenance and the type of work being carried on the road. It also sheds light into our state of hospitals and the preparedness of the government to react to such disasters.
However, as we mourn and lament the strategy befalling the Cameroons this morning. Nkwenti Fru wrote ” as we pray for the Cameroons we can’t help to lament the possibility that those railway lines have never been maintained ever since they were inherited from the German colonial government. Just like some of the major road… and we wonder why they are death traps. It is only in cameroon that we continue doing same practices whilst expecting different outcomes..”
May the souls of all departed rest in peace.
God is still saying something