A Concise Appraisal of Cameroon’s Hazard Risk Profile: Multi-Hazard Inventories, Causes, Consequences and Implications for Disaster Management

Abstract

The paucity of a comprehensive document on Cameroon’s hazard/disaster risk profile is a limitation to the country wide risk assessment and adequate disaster resilience. This article narrows this gap by retrospectively exploring Cameroon’s hazard/disaster profile. This has been achieved through an investigative approach that applies a set of qualitative methods to derive and articulate an inventory and analysis of hazards/disasters in Cameroon. The findings indicate that Cameroon has a wide array and high incidence/frequency of hazards that have had devastating consequences. The hazards have been structured along four profiles: a classification of all hazard types plaguing Cameroon into natural, potentially socio-natural, technological, and social and anthropogenic hazards; occurrence/origin of the hazards; their impacts/effects to the ‘at risk’ communities/populace and potential disaster management or mitigation measures. In-depth analysis indicate that natural hazards have the lowest frequency but the potential to cause the highest fatalities in a single incident; potentially socio-natural hazards affect the largest number of people and the widest geographical areas, technological hazards have the highest frequency of occurrence; while social/anthropogenic hazards are the newest in the country but have caused the highest population displacement. Arguably, the multi-hazard/disaster inventory presented in this article serves as a vital preliminary step to a more comprehensive profile of Cameroon’s disaster risk profile.

Identifying disaster risk factors and hotspots in Africa from spatiotemporal decadal analyses using INFORM data for risk reduction and sustainable development

“…Information-driven policies, as highlighted by Chen et al (2021), are imperative for DRR and sustainable development. Governance, identified as a DR driver, underscores the necessity for capacity building to enhance the effectiveness of human resources (Acharibasam & Datta, 2024), addressing concerns raised by Becker and van Niekerk (2015), Bang (2014Bang ( , 2022, about the deficiency of skilled DRR practitioners in Africa, which leads to delay in the translation of policies into actions.…”

“…As a crucial factor for disaster recovery and adaptation, Marin et al (2021) advocate for the inclusion of such resilience components in DR assessments. Notably, acute shortage of skilled practitioners have been identified as a source of delay in translating good policies into actions (Bang, 2014(Bang, , 2022Becker & van Niekerk, 2015). Furthermore, Keating et al (2017) Within hotspots, as indicated by Shi et al (2016), the occurrences of hazards surpass coping capacities, resulting in increased vulnerabilities.…”

“…Natural hazards in Africa, while less frequent, possess the potential to yield higher fatalities and trigger greater population displacement compared to human hazards, as highlighted by Bang (2022). Within…”

“…In the African context, the incidence of both natural and human‐induced hazards has escalated (Aliyu, 2015). Natural hazards in Africa, while less frequent, possess the potential to yield higher fatalities and trigger greater population displacement compared to human hazards, as highlighted by Bang (2022). Within the INFORM model, physical exposure to the specified hazards is used for the computation of the natural hazard category.…”

Conflict and Livelihood Changes in the South West Region of Cameroon: A Social Capital Perspective

“…Within the ranks of such displacements, individuals find it difficult to find jobs or livelihood activities to generate incomes for themselves thereby confirming findings of Nkongho (2018); Bang. and Balgah (2022) and Bang (2022) who reported that thousands of persons have been displaced with 80% of the people living in forests and bushes.…”