Word: cameroons
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Meanwhile, the Cameroon army struggled to navigate bulldozers over the precipitous mountain climbs and into the villages to dig graves for the dead livestock. But the primitive dirt tracks, which provide the only access to the hamlets for some 40 miles around, were muddied by pelting rains. Therefore the burials were slowed considerably while troops laboriously dug the graves by hand. Officials began to fear that the bloated carcasses of cows, goats, pigs and chickens rotting in the equatorial heat would lead to a cholera or typhoid epidemic. Army efforts were further hampered by the handful of survivors who refused...
...would be no more severe than a similar incident two years ago (see box). Moreover, authorities were distracted by the impending arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the first such visit by an Israeli head of government to a black African state in 20 years. Although Peres and Cameroon President Paul Biya signed an agreement renewing diplomatic relations, their meeting was quickly upstaged by the drama evolving on the northwestern border...
Indeed, Peres' visit may be remembered less for any savvy statesmanship than for his swift response to the emergency. Just three hours before Peres was to make his flight from Tel Aviv to Yaounde, the first reports of the gas disaster began to circulate outside Cameroon. Half a ton of medical supplies was promptly loaded onto the Prime Minister's Israeli air force Boeing 707, and a 17-member army medical team was hastily assembled to accompany the official party. Although the Israeli group landed in Yaounde last Monday, the crude internal travel conditions made it impossible for the medics...
...economic costs of the tragedy are difficult to calculate. The impact on the immediate area is likely to be devastating, although the effect on the entire country will be minimal. Compared with most of its fellow African states, Cameroon is well off. As a leading exporter of coffee and cocoa, the California-size land is one of the most economically stable countries on the continent. While much of Africa is hunger plagued, Cameroon (named by Portuguese settlers after the camaroes, or large pink prawns, found in vast quantities off the country's Atlantic coast) has achieved virtual agricultural self-sufficiency...
...country's 10 million people enjoy a per capita annual income of $820, more than four times that of Africa's poorest countries. Strong economic ties to the U.S. and other Western countries have further enhanced Cameroon's well- being. An enduring link with France, one of its many former colonial overseers, has enabled the country to develop its oil reserves...