The November ordinary session of parliament, the third and last for the 2024 legislative year opened in Yaounde on Tuesday – a week after a double landslide claimed the lives of many Cameroonians on the Dschang cliff road in the West Region. Yet in his speech, which was the lone item on the agenda of the opening plenary, the Speaker of the National Assembly, Hon Cavaye Yeguie Djibril did not mention the unfortunate incident nor call for a moment of silence to honour victims of the disaster.
A double landslide hit the Dschang cliff road Tuesday November 5— the second as emergency workers were using heavy machinery to try to clear the road from the first. As at Saturday, November 9, rescuers had recovered 12 bodies from the site. The Governor of the West Region, Awa Fonka Augustine told state broadcaster, the CRTV that dozens more people were still missing, and the search was still ongoing.
Some members of the National Assembly say they expected the Speaker to call for a moment of silence to honour the memories of those who lost their lives in the disaster.
Hon Koupit Adamou, a Member of the Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU) opposition party told NewsWatch that as nation’s representatives, Members of the National Assembly were supposed to honour the victims but the Speaker did not make mention of the tragedy.
“This session is opening just a week after the landslide in which lives of many of our citizens were lost. We were expecting the Speaker to call for a minute of silence and call on the government to take measures to protect the lives of our citizens”, Hon Koupit Adamou said. “We are the nation’s representatives and how can we begin a session like this without observing a minute of silence in their memory…It is unacceptable,” the opposition MP stated.
In his speech however, the Speaker mentioned climate change as the underlying cause of natural disasters including floods and food insecurity in the country. He praised the first couple, Paul and Chantal Biya for their “constant care and limitless and unprecedented gesture of solidarity” to flood victims in diverse localities of Cameroon.
Hon Cavaye urged the government to be proactive in disaster management. He said the government should draw lessons from the disasters that have already occurred in the country, take preventive measures as well as measures to mitigate the negative effects of such.
“It would therefore be necessary for the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection to work in synergy with the ministries concerned,” the Speaker said. “Hence, due consideration must be given to weather forecasts, security alerts and community impact assessments by the Ministry in charge of Environment. We should not only be taking action after a disaster has occurred,” Hon Cavaye said.
