Cameroon dispatches emergency aid for 5,000 homeless or displaced people by flood

Cameroon has dispatched emergency aid for at least 5,000 people left homeless or displaced by the worst coastal flooding in decades, according to a news report by Cameroon.org.

Heavy rains this month have swept floodwaters through Douala, Cameroon's largest city and economic capital, leaving much of it underwater.

Fresh fish seller Marcelline Obono, 39, says she lost all of her fish in weekend floods in Cameroon's economic capital Douala. She says she obtained a loan from a friend to buy fish and sell at the Nkoulouloun market, but that she is not certain of what may happen as more heavy rain threatening to fall.

The government of Cameroon reports that more than 5,000 people are either homeless or have left their homes temporarily to seek refuge in safer areas of the town.

Neighborhoods like Bepanda Safari, Akwa, New bell, Nkololoun, Bongo Cite Berge, Makepe Missoke, Carriere de tete, Mabanda Bonaberi, Bepanda Bongo, Bonamoussadi were the hardest hit. Many houses were completely covered by the floods.

Six bridges including the one linking the city of Douala and the Douala International airport collapsed. Thousands of goats, sheep, and fouls were dumped by the floods on the Atlantic ocean. No human deaths were reported.

Celestine Ketcha Courtes, Cameroon minister of housing and urban development, says failure by citizens to respect the city's urbanization plan provoked the floods.

She says Cameroon president Paul Biya asked her to visit Douala and tell residents that he is unhappy with uncivil behaviors that expose civilians to floods. He says Biya is outraged at hapharzard dumping of used plastic papers and bottles that block streams and rivers. She says Biya has ordered a stop to the construction of houses on dry river beds and mountain slopes.

Paul Atanga Nji, Cameroon territorial administration minister, says he was also dispatched by Biya to hand humanitarian assistance to victims of the floods.