Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Lake Nyos 20 Years After (IV): A Tale of Two Survivors

Culled from Smithsonian Magazine, September 2003

ON THE NIGHT OF THE APOCALYPSE, Ephriam Che was in his mud-brick house on a cliff above Nyos, a crater lake in the volcanic highlands of northwest Cameroon. A half-moon lit the water and the hills and valleys beyond. Around 9 p.m., Che, a subsistence farmer with four children, heard a rumbling that sounded like a rockslide. Then a strange white mist rose from the lake. He told his children that it looked as if rain were on the way and went to bed, feeling ill.

Lake Nyos Disaster 20 Years After (III): Is the Thermonuclear Device Theory Plausible?

Culled from Anthony D'Amato & Kirsten Engel (eds.). International Environmental Law Anthology (Chapter 10).

(2) Manipulation of Land/Water Systems

Possible manipulations of land and its water systems for military or hostile purposes will include: triggering earthquakes, tsunamis (seismic sea waves), landslides, quiescent volcanoes or lakes; destruction of water containments, nuclear plants, oil wells, etc.; and torching land, forest, vegetation, etc.

The Lake Nyos Disaster 20 Years After (II):Explaining Death by Toxic Carbon Dioxide Cloud

Culled from  Securitas Volume #4, Issue #6  (November/December 2005)

The acute health effects of carbon dioxide vary with its concentration in the air and the length of time a person breathes the gas. The usual carbon dioxide content in fresh air is only 0.03%, and in exhaled air approximately 4.5%.

Persons (and animals) breathing 17-30% (or greater) carbon dioxide concentration for less than a minute will have sudden loss of controlled and purposeful activity, unconsciousness, convulsions, coma, and death, according to Environmental Protection Agency data (accessed December 8, 2005).

The Lake Nyos Disaster 20 Years After (I): Revisiting Israeli Connection

By Dibussi Tande

On August 16, 1984, a gas eruption in Lake Monoun in the Western province of Cameroon killed 37 people. Reports revealed that "victims suffered vomiting, paralysis, and very rapid death; some lost the outer layer of their skin."

Two years later on August 21, 1986, a similar but more deadly incident occurred in Lake Nyos in the Northwest province. Toxic gas emanating from the lake killed some 1834 people along with 3500 livestock within a 12-mile radius.

Martin Nkemngu: I Was the First Journalist to Visit Lake Nyos after the Disaster

Culled from Cameroon Tribune

On August 21, 1986 when the Lake Nyos disaster occurred, I was serving in Bamenda as Provincial Chief of SOPECAM for the North West. I heard the news on Friday August 22, 1986 from one Mr. Titang Richard who was at the time the Superintendent in charge of the Bamenda Prison. Although on annual leave, I had to cut short and rush to the Governor’s Office where initial reports indicated that 40 persons had lost their lives in a strange gas disaster in Nyos, Menchum Division.