Over 23 people have been killed by a landslide from heavy rainfall being experienced in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde.

Landslides are common in Yaounde during the rainy season, as houses are sometimes built precariously on the city's many hills.


PHOTO | COURTESY mudslide

The recent incident occurred Sunday evening in Mbankolo, a district northwest of Yaounde home to approximately three million people.

According to state broadcaster CRTV, torrential rain caused a dam holding back an artificial lake on higher ground to burst.


PHOTO | COURTESY Mudslide

"Yesterday we pulled out 15 people who had died, and this morning we have found eight," said the fire service's second in command, David Petatoa Poufong, to reporters on the scene.

According to an AFP journalist, distraught relatives watched as firefighters drove away several victims' bodies wrapped in sheets.

A security cordon was put up to keep bystanders and reporters away from the area where the landslip occurred.

However, television footage showed a piece of a hill collapsing and what was left of dwellings made of wood, dry earth bricks, and metal sheets.

PHOTO | COURTESY Mudslide aftermath

The journalist added that the remains of hillside buildings carried away by the landslide could be seen in the distance.



According to CRTV, the mudslide wrecked roughly 30 buildings, and footage from the night showed torrents of water and mud continuing to pour into areas.

Last November, a landslip enveloped members of a funeral party in Yaounde's working-class suburb of Damas, on the city's eastern outskirts, killing at least 15 people.