The SCBC TV last night announced that today the 23 of August 2017, Ambazonians will remember the victims of the Lake Nyos disaster. Wherever the Ambazonians flag is flying shall be flown at half mask
31 years ago, on August 21, 1986, an unprecedented eruption occurred at Lake Nyos in the north zone of Ambazonia, which triggered the sudden release of about 1.6 million of tonnes of CO2. The gas spilled over the Northern lip of the lake into a valley running roughly east-west from Cha to Subum, and then rushed down two valleys branching to the north, displacing all the air causing the death of ca. 1,800 people and a huge number of livestock in mostly rural villagers within several kilometres of the lake. About 15,000 inhabitants fled the area, as many of them developed respiratory problems, lesions and paralysis as a result of gases they inhaled.
There has been a lot of controversy not only among the residents of Nyos and its environs but also among scientists as to the origin of the Lake Nyos gas disaster that killed thousands of people and cattle, and also caused the displacement of people from their homes to different sites (Soter, 1987). The residents of Nyos attributed the disaster to the annoyance of their most prominent chief popularly known as the Lake Chief, who died in 1983 (Interview with Ngong). According to them, the strangest disaster occurred because the will of the departed chief was not respected. Before death, the chief had 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 (Ngangwa, 2006). When the fatal disaster occurred, the residents of Nyos believed it was due to the wrath of their departed chief.
Some critics hold the view that the Lake Nyos gas disaster was not natural. According to them, the disaster was caused by a bomb that was tested in the lake
As local residents’ versions concerning the origins of the Lake Nyos gas disaster were varied, so too were scientists’ versions. Seven months after the disaster, President Paul Biya of Cameroon 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 ( Cameroon, 1987). 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 (Smith, 2007). Another explanation by Smith suggested that cool rainwater falling on one side of the lake triggered the overturn of the CO2 layer.
The pathologists who studied the fatalities of the Nyos tragedy were convinced that the victims died of asphyxiation, secondary to exposure to the carbon dioxide gas cloud. The entire medical evidence collected by national and foreign physicians indicated that carbon dioxide was the lethal toxic agent. Whatever the cause, the event resulted from the rapid mixing of the CO2 supersaturated deep water with the upper layers of the lake, where the reduced pressure allowed the stored CO2 to effervesce out of solution.
The strangest disaster
On Thursday, 21 August 1986, after it had rained very hard, an unprecedented event occurred in Nyos - the lake Nyos gas disaster. By 9:30 p.m, the heavy down pour ceased and the weather became conducive for normal evening activities. This tranquil atmosphere was suddenly disturbed by a series of rumbling sounds which are said to have lasted just for a few minutes. Many people on hearing this sound came out and smelled a smell akin to gun powder and rotten eggs. Some immediately felt hot and lost consciousness without any preliminary symptoms. Those who could not resist the inhaled gas perished instantly. Many survivors of this fatal incident woke up 6-16 hours later.
Certain factors allowed survivals in villages where massive death was recorded. First, as soon as the fatal incident occurred, an old man immediately drank some palm oil and shouted at the top of his voice that the other village dwellers should do the same. Some of those who took his advice seriously and drank the palm oil survived but others still died. Second, the lake is situated on a plain. Before the toxic gas could reach the village dwellers who resided on hill tops, its concentration had reduced so some of the hill top dwellers who inhaled the gas survived. Third, the direction of the wind at the time of the release of the gas was also a decisive factor in causing death. Almost all the village dwellers who resided on the direction of the wind during the gas release died while some of those who resided on the opposite direction survived.
The government administrators in Wum received verbal news about the disaster from Emmanuel Ngu Mbi (chief of Sebum Health Centre) who slept in Wum on the day of the disaster. On the morning of August 22, 1986, he hopped onto his bicycle and began riding from Wum towards Nyos. When he reached Cha, he smelled something strange, felt dizzy and fell unconscious. He slept there and woke up at 8.35a.m and continued his journey. On the way he noticed an antelope lying dead next to the road. Why let it go to waste? He posed himself this rhetorical question. He decided to tie the antelope onto his bicycle and continued on. A short distance later, he noticed two dead rats, and further on, a dead dog and other dead animals. He wondered if all the animals had been killed by lightning strike – when lightning hits the ground, it is not unusual for animals nearby to be killed by the shock. Soon he came upon a group of huts at Nyos. He decided to see if anyone there knew what had happened to the animals. But surprisingly, as he walked up to the huts he was stunned to see dead bodies strewn everywhere. He did not find even a single person still alive – everyone in the huts was dead. He immediately threw down his bicycle and ran all the way back to Wum to report the calamity (Interview with Wango).
Mbi finally got to Wum at 10:40 a.m and reported the event immediately to his boss, Anthony Wango Wabua, Assistant Chief of Preventive Medicine, who then alerted the medical doctor, the colonial Senior Divisional Officer of Menchum Region and finally the public security. The public security officers then sent a message to the colonial Governor of the North West Region who in turn informed the presidency of la Republique du Cameroun. Within a few hours, the news spread like a wild fire throughout Cameroon and the world. Scientists and non-scientists commenced their search for the cause of the disaster in a manner comparable to the approach adopted by police officers to investigate crimes.
The governing council of Ambazonia has pledged their support to the survivors of the Nyos Disaster.
