No deaths in Yaounde High school stampede—Health, Education Ministers say

Yaounde, Cameroon—Over 73 students of Government High School Nkoabang in Yaounde are receiving treatment in some hospitals in the capital after sustaining injuries in a stampede at the school gate on Tuesday March 3, 2015.

Elements of the Fire Fighting unit rushed to the scene, ferried victims

A stampede was triggered after  about 2.000 students,  denied access to the campus by school authorities for not having some textbooks, according to official sources, tried to force their way in when the gate was opened for a school official who wanted to leave campus.

The injured students were immediately rushed to some private hospitals and others to the Yaounde Central Hospital where they are currently receiving treatment.

Five parents who rushed to the scene reportedly collapsed and were also rushed to the hospital.

The Minister of Public Health, Andre Mama Fouda and Secondary Education minister, Louis Bapes Bapes dispelled claims that some of the students had died when they visited some of the victims at the Yaounde Central hospital on Tuesday afternoon.

“I can assure you no student died”, Minister Louis Bapes Bapes told reporters after their visit to the hospital. He insisted that “if I am lying, I think the doctors will not be my accomplices”

Classes have resumed in the school, under tight security though.

By Ndi Eugene Ndi in Yaounde