CI-NEWS

43 Gouatche landslide victims laid to rest.

2019-11-12

No: 455

43 Gouatche landslide victims laid to rest.

By Etoh Anzah George in Bamenda.

Triste mais Vrai ! Terrible mais reel! These words came echoing into the Horizon NW bureau chief’s ears as over 2000 mourners came face to face with mortal men filled coffins. The sad October saga occurred in Gouatche village of the West region. A reported landslide which sneaked itself into the late hours of the midnight squeezed life out of 43 humans being settlers and internally displaced persons from the North West region.

To bid farewell to a people whose hopes will have certainly been to live till reincarnation, Cameroon’s Prime Minister Chief Dr Joseph Dion Ngute, special representative of the head of state, communed with mourners in a formal administratively spiced encounter.

The ceremony which saw the cream of cabinet ministers, Celestin Ketcha of Housing and Urban Development; Nganou Djoumessi of Public Works; Paul Atanga Nji of Territorial Administration; Joseph Le of public service, amongst others, could tell of the loss and magnitude to which the nation is aggrieved,a situation which had caused the flying of the flags at half mast to their honours.

Speaking at the ceremony, the government delegate to the Bafoussam city council, Emmanuel Nzete, recounted the sad ordeal that left the 43 or more lifeless.

Squeezing meaning from his dominantly French language delivered speech, Emmanuel Nzete, painted an era of dismay and disregard owing to the pathetic occurrence, a view many say would have been of help if the latter had used previous mediums to educate the masses.

Backed by the delegate was an official message from the head of state addressed to the governor which read "monsieur le gouverneur j’ai appris avec detresse l’eboulement de Terre...veuillez accepter mes condoléances", a message whose reading could not stop the bereaved from wailing.

From left to right as he walked past 43 coffins laughter and smiles became too difficult to squeeze out of the faces and particularly that of the PM an impossibility which is likened to squeezing water from a rock. Overtime cases of mass burials have been recorded with little amelioration done. But what if these dead people have land certificates to the houses they own at the Gouache 4 block 6 residential area? Certainly the question will be who signed and issued?How were the surveys done? What nature of cadastral reports? Why no preventional decrees to avoid any land reclamation and construction? Certainly heads should roll but what if he who has to roll heads must begin from himself.The Nyos disaster, Nsam fire, Mbanga Pongo plane crash, Eseka train accident stand out clear to which victims till date continue to question the whereabouts of funds directed to them at a time when 200 million is said to have been coughed out of state coffers with the aim of aiding the bereaved bury and resettle in a quest to face life’s pregnant stakes.

Digging more into this, over 30 or more corpses in ready ambulances stood in protest and request for funds as they displayed distrust as to whether or not the assigned funds shall be truly theirs after burial. Before now family heads were asked to see the SDO for reasons unclear. This was further insinuated upon by Kegni Albert, a survivor of the landslide who in a formal address urged authorities to keep to promises and disburse funds promised.

On the sidelines of the event, CRM party chairman Maurice Kamto's arrival at the Bafoussam ceremonial ground was marked with cheering and jubilation from purported fans minutes to the said glory followed by a STOP from security forcesto a man who contrary to his mastery of state protocol and procedures arrived 15 minutes late when the prime minister and special representative of the head of state and others ranking as such were seated.

43 souls came to the earth, they saw BUT were conquered, but what lessons do we learn? Isn't it time to evacuate other settlers in risk zones? Isn't it time to prompt sensitization of the masses still living in zones of similar magnitude? Isn’t it time for unscrupulous officials of the ministry of land tenure to repent from fictitious reports and land permits? Indeed like the CBC, Catholic, Moslem imams and other officials cried out so too is The Horizon. Additionally, their voices and soul-appealing songs of a recall to GOD and clinging to his ways echoed in a song "...we wait to see Jesus elevated" tells well of the desires and obvious need to seek Christ before disasters rather than after as 2 Chronicles 7:14 holds a call to repentance and acknowledgement of wrongs for obvious forgiveness and restoration.

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43 Gouatche landslide victims laid to rest.