On 21 October 2016, a

Camrail Camrail is a company operating passenger and freight traffic between the two largest cities in Cameroon and several smaller cities. The company was formed in 1999 and granted a 20-year concession to operate the Cameroon National Railway. The compa ...

inter-city passenger train travelling from

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

's capital,

Yaoundé Yaoundé (; , ) is the capital of Cameroon and, with a population of more than 2.8 million, the second-largest city in the country after the port city Douala. It lies in the Centre Region of the nation at an elevation of about 750 metres (2,50 ...

, to its largest city,

Douala Douala is the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. It is also the capital of Cameroon's Littoral Region (Cameroon), Littoral Region. Home to Central Africa's largest port and its major international airport, Douala International Ai ...

, derailed in

Eséka Eséka is a small town in central Cameroon. Transport The city of Eséka lies on the main Camrail railway, where the line enters more rugged terrain from the coastal plains. On 22 October 2016, a passenger train derailed close to the town. ...

, Centre Region. By 30 October 2016, the official number of casualties had reached 79 dead, with 550 injured. It was the deadliest rail accident on the African continent since the August 2007 Benaleka train accident.

Background

Camrail, which is a subsidiary company of the French

Bolloré Bolloré SE () is a French conglomerate headquartered in Puteaux, on the western outskirts of Paris, France. Founded in 1822, the company has interests in Vivendi, international freight forwarding, oil storage and pipelines in France, solid state ...

group, also operates

Sitarail Sitarail is a private company that has the concession to operate railway lines formerly operated by the government. Countries include: * Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso * Cameroon Sitarail is part of the Bolloré group. Timeline 2016 * Operati ...

, the company that provides rail services in the former French colonies of

Burkina Faso Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...

and

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...

. Sitarail had a major accident in September 2016 when a bridge collapsed while one of Sitarail's trains travelled across it. The accident caused the closure of the international rail-link between the West African countries. The Bolloré group, led by French billionaire

Vincent Bolloré Vincent Bolloré (born 1 April 1952) is a French billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and CEO of the investment group Bolloré. As of September 2021, his net worth is estimated at US$9 billion. Early life Bolloré was born in Boulogne- ...

(whose son, Cyrille Bolloré, is the director of Bolloré Transports and Logistics and has been responsible for Camrail's operations since January 2016), also has plans to build and operate additional rail lines in French West Africa as part of the West Africa Regional Rail Integration plan.

Accident

The passenger train involved in the accident was travelling on a

line between the capital, Yaoundé, and the country's largest city and economic hub, Douala. Because of recent heavy rains, a landslide had destroyed a bridge on the main road connecting the two cities, forcing many people to travel by train instead. As a result, Camrail extended the 9-carriage train with 8 additional carriages. The number of passengers on board was reported to be around 1,300, more than double the intended capacity of 600 of the unextended train, and the train left Yaoundé at 11:00 local time with a slight delay. A

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

journalist travelling on the train reported a loud noise and smoke as several of the carriages derailed around midday local time (11:00

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

) in Eséka, about west of the capital. Victims were transported to a local hospital in Eséka, as well as to facilities in Douala. Social media images showed several carriages overturned on a slope beside the rail line, as hundreds of passengers looked on. Because of the accident and the earlier bridge collapse, Cameroon's main transportation axis was effectively cut for the time being.

Investigation

In the immediate aftermath of the accident, Camrail announced they will send investigative teams to the site, and expressed their condolences to the victims' families in a post on the company's official Facebook page. Rail officials said that prior to the train's departure from Yaoundé, eight additional carriages were added to the normally nine-car train in order to accommodate additional passengers, but it was not immediately known if that had caused or contributed to the crash. On the Tuesday following the crash a Cameroonian court announced that they would begin an investigation into who was at fault for the accident. The following day Bolloré's Africa Chairman announced that the train had been traveling above the speed limit when it crashed.

Government commissioned reports

The Cameroonian Government commissioned four reports to evaluate the cause of the accident and planned to release their own findings in a separate report.

reported that at least one of the four confidential investigations found that Camrail had "total and entire responsibility" for crash and that the railroad had improperly inspected the train before its doomed journey. The report found that of the 17 carriages on the train, 13 had malfunctioning braking systems and that Camrail administrators ignored warnings from Camrail personnel before the accident.Reuters, Thu 26 January 2017, Cameroon's Camrail responsible for deadly train accident: expert report

/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2016 Eséka train derailment 2016 in Cameroon Centre Region (Cameroon) Derailments in Africa October 2016 events in Africa Railway accidents in 2016 Railway accidents and incidents in Cameroon 2016 disasters in Cameroon

Background

Accident

Investigation

Government commissioned reports

See also

References