Cameroon football records 6 tragic deaths in just 14 days

Cameroon football is going through one of its worst moments with a string of tragic deaths in just 14 days.

Since the beginning of this month, at least six of such related incidents have been recorded, with the latest being the death of David Mayebi, former Vice President of the Cameroon football federation last Sunday.

It all began in Buea on May 4 when a driver working at the construction site of the Molyko Omnisport Stadium saw life snuffed out of him when a heavy-duty automobile collapsed on him. The incident occurred just in front of the stadium with the driver suffocating under the weight of an excavator. This incident had gone almost unnoticed as it wasn’t widely reported in the mainstream media.

Just two days later, another incident hit the headlines. It was in the evening of Friday 6 May when news broke that one time Indomitable Lions player, Patrick Claude Ekeng Ekeng, had been pronounced clinically dead two hours after he collapsed during a Romanian league game.

Ekeng had been on the field of play just for about seven minutes when he suddenly slumped backwards around the centre circle. Players and match officials rushed to his rescue before ushering in medical staff who opted to transport him by an ambulance service which was later sanctioned by Romanian officials for lack of appropriate medical equipment.

Just when Cameroonians were still struggling to come to terms with the tragic death of Ekeng which evoked sad memories of the Marc-Vivien Foe incident in 2003, another bombshell broke just two days later (on May 8). A female keeper of FC of Ebolowa, Jeanine Christelle Djomnang, took ill while training with team mates ahead of a women’s league match but shockingly died while being transported to hospital same day. Djomnang had reportedly complained of chest pain before the game she had to play against Louvre MINPROFF of Yaounde. Curiously, she died aged 26, just like Ekeng.

As if that wasn’t enough, another scandal broke out on May 14 when a portion of earth at the Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium caved, killing one worker at the construction site and severely injuring two others. We gathered this week that one of those injured had been discharged from hospital while the other is still hospitalized and is in critical condition. All three victims were part of a number of workers of Arab Contractors, an Egyptian civil engineering company, carrying our rehabilitation works at the sports edifice which is scheduled to host pool A matches of the upcoming women’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament in November and December this year.

The Ahmadou Ahidjo stadium, it should be noted, has been undergoing rehabilitation for several months now and just a week before the sad incident, the prime minister, Philemon Yang had visited the site to see how far work had advanced. The premier, on the occasion, had called on the contractors to speed up work so as to meet stipulated deadline.

And early this week, the country’s football management body, FECAFOOT, which had since the beginning of the month not rested in churning out condolence messages, was itself struck by tragedy. It was the passing away of top FECAFOOT official, David Mayebi. The 61-year-old was also head of the football governing body’s Marketing Commission, a member of its Executive committee and president of the Cameroon fooballers’ syndicate at the time of his demise.

He had suffered a malaise on May 3 in Bertoua in the East region during a ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone of a stadium to be constructed by FECAFOOT. He was then rushed to the emergency unit of the National Social Insurance Fund hospital in Yaounde where he finally died.

He was a former player and one-time coach of Union Sportive of Douala and founder of the National Union of Football Players of Cameroon.

Mayebi’s death came in the morning of Sunday when Indomitable Lions Patrick Ekeng, who collapsed in Romania was being buried.