Floods claim about 20 lives

Heavy rains battered northern Cameroon at the weekend, causing floods and leading to some 20 deaths, news organisations and relief workers reported. A humanitarian source in Yaounde told IRIN that rivers burst their banks, while some mud houses were swept away and others caved in on their inhabitants. AFP reported official sources as saying that about 20 people drowned in the floods which affected the provinces of Nord (North) and Extreme Nord. The humanitarian source said there was a possibility of other catastrophes arising as a result of the floods since cholera usually breaks out in the area when there is much water around.