A bus accident killed at least 14 people and injured several dozen on Tuesday in eastern Cameroon, according to a provisional tally from the transport ministry and a medical source today.

“THE the provisional count is 14 dead, including seven men, six women and a 10-year-old child,” Jean-Ernest Massena Ngale Bibehe, Cameroon’s transport minister, said in a statement, adding that an investigation was underway “to establish the circumstances and assign responsibilities“.

According to the first data, the traffic accident occurred on Tuesday at noon at the height of the Lom site, a village located in eastern Cameroon, on a road connecting the cities of Garoua-Bulai (East) and Ngaudere, in the Adamawa region. The “people carrier” vehicle overturned twice in quick succession while leaving the traffic lane,” explained the transport minister.

The dead and injured were taken to Garoua-Bulai hospital, he added. In total, “68 people are victims of this traffic accident, of which 64 received first aid on the spot,” a hospital source told AFP, without specifying whether the victims were all on the bus.

The final report will be announced at the end of the investigation, the minister said.

More than 7,000 people have lost their lives on the roads of Cameroon, i.e. more than 30 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates in Africa, according to the most recent figures available from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018).

These numbers are at least seven times higher than the authorities’ figures for traffic victims. According to statistics from a Cameroon Ministry of Transport official published in June 2022, 963 people died in road accidents in 2021.