A landslide swept away a hamlet of about twenty houses in Anyama, in the northern suburbs of Abidjan, leaving at least thirteen dead and many missing buried under tons of mud after torrential rains in recent days. "Thirteen dead, this is the provisional balance, the searches continue," said the prefect of Abidjan, Vincent Toh Bi. The final assessment should be much heavier.
The hamlet called “Derrière les rails” is located in a flood and inconstructible zone inhabited for years by modest families. The rails of the Abidjan-Ouagadougou railway are curiously suspended in the air as if they formed a bridge: the hill of earth four to five meters high on which they were placed has disappeared.
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“Around eight o'clock, we heard a big 'VLAHOUM' as if the earth took everything away. We went out to see what was going on. The hill was gone. We came to help. I knew people here. Some have disappeared, ” says Ibrahim Sidibe. "Thank goodness my wife went out while I was sleeping. She woke me up and said, there is a collapse. The walls were cracking. She saved my three month old son. I went to knock on my big brother's house. I was able to save him, but my uncle, his pregnant wife, their boy and their daughter were buried, ” testifies Seba Cisse, still barefoot and wearing an Argentine soccer jersey with which he slept. "I lost everything , " said the television repairman, "but thank God, we're alive . "
The rainy season started in May in Abidjan and usually lasts until the end of July. The rains have already caused a death this weekend in this city, according to the prefect. The scenario of torrential rains followed by devastating floods is recurrent in the Ivorian economic capital. Construction in floodplains, often inhabited by the poor, is legion in this metropolis of West Africa which has five million inhabitants and is continuously growing. Authorities have taken action across the city after the severe flooding that killed 18 people in June 2018. Seeking public ire, the government has destroyed "neighborhoods" in flood or dangerous areas, where the inhabitants live in precarious conditions, settling where they find space.
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Thursday's drama is part of this logic. "In the urban plan, the area was designed to collect rainwater," said the prefect who requisitioned a paved area, to install tents to accommodate the survivors and people evacuated from the area . Aboubacar Dagnon ensures that a drainage tunnel was blocked three or four months ago, creating a reservoir. Onlookers around him nod. The rains of the last days caused the water to rise up to take away the hill. "We didn't think it could happen," he said. The train passed again yesterday » .
