Cameroon government officials do not know how many people were inside a building in Ngaoundere, Adamawa region when it collapsed.

At least four people have now been confirmed dead after the lifeless bodies of a woman, her two children and her younger sister were pulled from the rubble of a four-storey uncompleted building on Tuesday July 25, 2023, in the Côte D’Azur vicinity in Baladji, Ngaoundere, Adamawa Region.

Cameroon Concord News understands authorities are still searching for 42 unaccounted people.

A huge section of the building was reduced to rubble when it crashed to the ground on Tuesday.

The number of fatalities and people unaccounted for has not been updated by the Francophone dominated police and gendarmerie force.

In a statement late on Tuesday, Cameroon government spokesman Minister Rene Emmanuel Sadi said that councils have been given firm instructions to control and stop building constructions that do not comply with norms in their municipalities.

Rene Sadi’s empty press release was in reaction to the 4-storey building collapse in Douala on Sunday, July 23 that killed more than 37 people.

The Governor of Adamawa Region, Kildadi Taguieke Bouka visited the scene of the incident and told reporters that search will continue for survivors.

By Soter Agbaw-Ebai with files from Rita Akana