A decade after Cameroon’s deadliest rail disaster killed 79 people and injured more than 500, survivors are still living with serious injuries, some compensation remains unpaid and an appeal against the convictions over the crash has yet to be heard. RFI spoke to survivors still living with the consequences of the disaster and to the husband of a woman whose body has never been found.
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The Camrail train was travelling from Yaoundé to Douala when it derailed near the town of Eseka, around 100 kilometres from the capital, on 21 October 2016.
That morning, traffic on the road linking Cameroon’s political capital Yaoundé with its economic capital Douala was disrupted, prompting large numbers of people to take the train instead. Numerous carriages were added to cope with the influx of passengers.
An investigation later found that the train was travelling at 96 kilometres per hour on a section limited to 40 kilometres per hour. It also pointed to an overloaded train, the inappropriate addition of extra carriages and carriages with defective braking systems.
The report said Camrail management had failed to take into account concerns raised by the train driver before departure.
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Lasting injuries
Among those who survived the crash was Eugénie, now 39, who suffered several fractures, including one to her neck, and has since lost her independence.
“I remember saying three times: ‘Jesus, save me.’ I was trapped underneath the carriage. I started praying and shouting: ‘Please, come and help me, come and help me',” Eugénie told RFI.
“There were so many people. We didn't know who would be saved and who would be left there. There was blood everywhere, people were screaming and crying.”
Eugénie suffered several fractures, including one to her neck, and has since lost her independence.
“I can't do anything by myself,” she said. “I always need someone to be at home with me. Since that accident, my life has ceased to exist. I'm constantly in pain, I suffer from memory loss, and my body is still in tremendous pain.”
Another survivor, Arnaud, was travelling in the second-to-last carriage.
“When things had settled down and I regained consciousness, I realised there were a lot of dead bodies in our carriage and that all the seats and luggage racks had been torn away,” he said.
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Still searching
Among the families still seeking answers is that of Dorette Dissakè, a prominent notary in Yaoundé whose body has never been found.
“My daughter, the rest of the family and I are still waiting,” her husband, lawyer Thomas Dissakè, told RFI. “On what basis can we grieve and move on? The idea doesn't even cross our minds.”
Dissakè recently enlisted a team of experts, with the cooperation of Camrail and the Ministry of Transport, to examine the ground at Eseka in the hope of finding human remains.
“How is it possible that her body has never been found? The accident didn't happen at sea. Her carriage overturned at the station. They lifted it up and there was nothing. Was another carriage run over her? This mystery is still on my mind,” he said.
The family's search for answers has even led to the exhumation of a body in a village in Cameroon’s Centre region, but it was not Dissakè's wife.
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Criminal convictions
In September 2018, Camrail and 11 of its employees were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and causing unintentional injuries by the court of first instance in Eseka.
The company’s former managing director received a six-month suspended prison sentence. Other Camrail officials received suspended sentences of between three and five months, while the train driver, who was on the run, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Camrail appealed against the ruling, denouncing the “absence of any qualified and competent expert assessment”.
The appeal has still not been heard.
Lawyers representing the victims also said the compensation awarded was too low given the physical and psychological harm suffered. Some payments have still not been made.
The France-based Bolloré Group retained the Camrail railway concession after the disaster until it sold its transport activities to Italian-Swiss company MSC in 2022.
This article has been adapted from interviews in French by Richard Onanena and Jules Ntap.