By Ndi Fungwe
Following the torrential rains of Sunday, July 23, 2023, in Bamenda, the regional capital of Cameroon’s North West region, a fourth-grade student at Providence Kindergarten Primary School, Ndamukong, drowned after being swept away by swift water.
Ndobgkengful Cheris was inside a neighbor’s home during the torrential downpour that lasted nearly an hour on a Sunday.
She is alleged to have vanished without anyone in the neighbor’s home being aware. The parents did not realize she was missing until they returned from their Sunday meeting and began searching for her.
“On our return from the Sunday meeting, we realized that she was not at home. Because every time we return from a meeting, she is the first to greet us, but she was absent on that Sunday,” explained Cheris’ parents.
“We called for her without getting any response. Then, we initiated a search after being informed that she was in the neighbour’s home, but then later disappeared in an unknown direction. We spent the entire Sunday evening searching for her” they continued.
Cherish’s father, Ndongkeng Celestine, explained that a group of young men who typically remove sand from a nearby stream discovered her body in the stream early on Monday morning.
Cheris’ girl’s body was removed from the water and buried behind the family compound in Bamenda, after it was discovered on Monday, July 24, 2023.
Mr. Ndongkeng, however, explained that they were a bit uncertain as to the real cause of death as there were no signs of drowning after an examination of her daughter’s corpse.
“We did not discover any water in her stomach, nothing indicated she drowned. So I am so confused. We had to bury her here and tomorrow I will take the ground back to the village to inform family members. Because of our custom, we couldn’t take the corpse home,” he explained.
Her family is from Bamouck Village in the Libialem division of Cameroon’s South West region but as Mr. Ndongkeng explained, they could not take the corpse back to the village because tradition forbidds them from doing so.
“When someone dies in such a circumstance, they are interred by the water, but there was no space to bury her where she was discovered, so I brought her home and buried her behind my house,” Mr. Ndongkeng stated.
