Cameroon road accident kills eight, 62 injured

Eight people lost their lives in a traffic accident on an infamous road in western Cameroon, local authorities said on Wednesday, with 62 more taken to hospital with injuries.

The accident in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday took place on the outskirts of the city of Dschang, on a stretch of road dubbed “the cliff” which has a reputation for traffic deaths.

According to state radio station CRTV, the large vehicle was on its way to Cameroon’s largest city Douala when it “ended up in a ravine following a malfunction”, dragging its many passengers down with it.

“At around 3:00 am the hospital received 62 injured and eight dead,” the Dschang regional hospital director Michel Noubom said in a statement.

Eight children were among the injured, local public health official Daouda Chimoun said, adding that “the prognosis for the victims is no longer life-threatening”.

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In June, four people died at the Dschang “cliff” in a similar accident. Another incident in January 2018 killed 21 people.

More than 6,000 people die every year on Cameroon’s roads, a rate of over 30 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Bank and the World Health Organization.

This would make Cameroon among the deadliest countries in Africa to drive in, although the Cameroonian authorities’ own figures for road deaths are seven times lower.

According to statistics from an official in Cameroon’s transport ministry published in a national daily in June 2022, 963 people died in road accidents in 2021.