31 years after disaster:

Lake Nyos survivors express desire to return home

By Njodzefe Nestor and Etafor Judith

The 1986 killer lake now free of the Toxic CO2

On the night of Thursday August 21, 1986, Lake Nyos which is found in Menchum Division, North West Region, released a lethal cloud of carbon dioxide that swept through the lower villages of Nyos, Cha Subum, Kam, Munji, and Djingbe killing more than 1700 people and thousands of domestic and wild animals. About 4,000 inhabitants fled the area and many of them developed respiratory problems, burns and paralysis as a result of the gas.

                In a bit to resettle the displaced population, the construction of permanent sites for the survivors by the government commenced immediately after the International Conference on the Lake Nyos gas disaster  which was held in Yaounde from 18 to 20 March 1987.

                Also, the government of Cameroon and the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP initiated a project baptised “Securisation and Socio-economic Reintegration of Lake Nyos Area” aimed at degassing the lake.

                The first degassing pipe was installed in 2001 to send out the excess CO2. Two supplementary degassing pipes; each with the capacity four times more than that of 2001, were installed in the lake in 2010 and 2011.

                In 2016 during the conference dubbed “Lakes Nyos and Monoun gas disasters 30 years after”, the Director of the Cameroon’s Institute of Geological and Mining Research, better known in its French Acronym as IRGM, Dr. Joseph Victor Hell, said the lakes are safe because the degassing projects has reduced the CO2 accumulations in the lakes.

                Although lakeNyos has been declared safe, the victims have not been authorized to return to their villages. Moreover, 31 years after the disaster, life in the resettlement camps have reportedly not the best.

Inhabitants in Upkwa, Buabua, Kimbi 1, Kimbi 2, Esu, Ipalim, KumFutu 1, Kumfutu 2 and Yemnge camps have decried the horrible living conditions and are calling on government to facilitate their reinsertion back to their initial communities.

                “It is 30 years already and the structures are dilapidated.  The small houses are not comfortable. There are no schools for our children and grandchildren in the camps. Those that struggle to attend school do not longer have support from the government. People have to trek long distances to fetch for water. Where we are settled is not as fertile as Nyos; the soil does not yield much crops as in Nyos. Moreover, home is home; I have the nostalgia of going back to my place of origin. It is so many years since the explosion took place but I still have the yearning to go back to my village, ” lamented one of the survivors.

                This was corroborated by Julius Kese a teacher in Wum. “Today, I am a man of 38 and we are not yet authorized to go back to our land of origin. We live like refugees in our own country. Many victims have abandoned the camps because they are old with no electricity and potable water. We used to receive petty state assistance. The government gave us subventions until I finished Class 7. But, since 1990 many of us have received nothing. When we began living in Wum, my elder brother started by selling kerosene. From kerosene, we moved greater to a provision store. I struggled to further my education. Today, I am a teacher. But, what is inappropriate is that victims are no longer receiving state subventions but are highly taxed in the petty businesses they do. In Nyos, we had rich harvests and fed well; the reason I want to go back” he observed.

                Discussing on the plight of victims, a Red Cross worker on disaster management in Wum, PaulycapNdze, said the situation of victims is still at stake:

                “Victims keep on complaining; many have condemned the fact that although the state has not yet authorized them to return, it is no longer giving assistance. The state assisted victims with medication (to the injured), food, soaps, mattresses, blankets and a grinding mill in each camp but stopped 4 years after the calamity. But, even when aid (more of seeds for cropping) was given again during the 21st anniversary of the disaster, many victims complained of not receiving it. Those who accepted to have received the aid complained it was too small. So, I don’t know if the aid was insufficient or it was not well channeled to the victims. Generally, the condition of the victims is still regrettable. Some are still not able to live normal lives. The camps are dilapidated.  Not all children in the camps are schooling. There is a general cry to return because of the fertility of the soil.”

                Pointing out government’s misdirected policy, Madam Siy Joanna one of the survivors regretted that the government has built comfortable inns for tourists around the lake whereas victims are living in dilapidated camps without even water and electricity.

                “The government should have first thought of satisfying the victims before the tourists. Why build good structures for tourists whereas victims are suffering in the poor camps?” she questioned again.

                In addition, she said the government has given more humane treatment to the victims of the Nsam fire disaster; (of February 14, 1998, by not just providing basic humanitarian aid such as school aid, mattresses and food but providing big funds for the construction of comfortable houses in resettled areas.

                 “If it is not misdirected priority, how can government give more humane treatment to people who were out to steal petrol and were affected than to people who were affected by an explosion of a gas? I see this illogical” she added.

Cause of the Lake Nyos Disaster: A tale of controversies

                There has been a lot of controversies and conspiracy theories not only among the residents of Nyos and its environs but also among scientists as to the origin of the Lake Nyos gas disaster.

                Seven months after the disaster, President Paul Biya summoned an international conference that brought together scientists from different academic disciplines to unravel the causes of the unprecedented calamity.

                One hundred scientists and other experts from different countries sat in the conference hall in Yaounde from 16 to 20 March 1987 in an acrimonious debate to reveal the results of their findings.

                At the end of the conference, the experts were neatly divided into two camps (volcanologists and limnologists). Scientists from the United States of America, Cameroon, Israel, Britain, Switzerland and Japan ascribed to the limnological theory.

According to this theory, carbonic gas of magmatic origin had been slowly accumulating in the lake long before it was released by the interaction of a yet unspecific trigger event. According to them, there was no direct volcanic explosion.

                The volcanologists explained an observed phenomenon which pointed to a phreatic eruption, which did not involve fresh magma, but only superheated water flashing to steam. According to them, the phreatic explosion occurred on the bed of the lake.

                Some of the residents of Nyos however attribute the disaster to the annoyance of their most prominent chief popularly known as the Lake Chief, who died in 1983.

                According to them, the strangest disaster occurred because the will of the departed chief was not respected. Before death, the said chief had reportedly designated his most conspicuous cow to be given to the Kwifon Secret Society for ritual purposes.

                When the chief passed away, his kinsmen argued strongly among themselves and came to the conclusion that the cow was too big for the ritual sacrifice and so decided to substitute it with a slim one. One week later, all the late chief’s cows were seen moving in a queue into Lake Nyos. When the fatal disaster occurred, the residents of Nyos believed it was due to the wrath of their departed chief.