Three traffic accidents, two of them serious, have claimed the lives of at least 24 Cameroonians on the routes connecting the cities of Douala, Yaoundé, and Bafoussam since August 14, 2026.
More than 20 Cameroonians lost their lives on roadways between August 14 and 23, 2026, in traffic accidents. The latest occurred on August 23, 2026, on National Road No. 3 (Yaoundé-Douala), at Sikoum near Logbadjeck in Sanaga-Maritime. Around 6 a.m., a head-on collision between a public transport bus and a dump truck carrying gravel resulted in seven deaths and 10 injuries.
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The tragedy occurred two days after another person died in a traffic accident last Friday at the Obala interchange. A dump truck coming from Obala hit the central reservation, throwing a piece of concrete onto the opposite lane, which overturned a passenger vehicle carrying five passengers. This loss of life adds to the number recorded a week earlier in the depths of horror.
In another traffic accident that occurred in Nomale, on the Yaoundé-Bafoussam route, Ndikinimeki-Bafia section, 16 people lost their lives and about forty others were injured after a bus crashed head-on into the rear of a truck loaded with wood and parked in the middle of the road. Considering the various tragic events, a total of 24 deaths and more than fifty injuries have been recorded in less than two weeks.
The different accidents occur at a sensitive time, a few weeks before the start of the school year. This is a period of intense traffic related to the massive movement of people between cities and rural areas. Among other causes are speeding, improper overtaking, and illegal parking. A common factor in the three accidents is the involvement of a truck. In two out of three accidents, a vehicle providing intercity passenger transport is involved. The causes go beyond the people and vehicles and may concern the roads.
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While ongoing investigations are underway, the Cameroonian Consumers Foundation strongly condemns structural road insecurity and points to the condition of the roads. “All our national roads are narrow lanes less than 8 meters wide, lacking physical central separation, where the slightest deviation turns into a fatal head-on collision,” reads a statement from Focaco. The organization calls on public authorities, noting that “simple calls for caution are no longer enough” as the school year approaches and traffic density increases.
However, the series of tragedies occurs while the Ministry of Transport has been conducting a special road safety campaign since last June. Intensified since August 17 with the operation to remove illegally parked vehicles from the roads, the campaign does not seem to be producing results sufficient to stop the toll on the roadways. Additional efforts and actions are necessary to bring the carnage on Cameroonian roads to a halt.
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