Government Warns of Possible Volcanic Eruption

UN Integrated Regional Information Network

September 7, 2001
Posted to the web September 7, 2001

Nigerian Information Minister Jerry Gana warned on Wednesday that Mount Cameroon, across the border, could erupt again soon and pose a serious health hazard to Nigerian border communities, news organisations reported.

He told reporters in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, that Nigeria had been warned that the eruption of the 4,100-metre-high volcano was imminent. "Scientific studies [commissioned by Nigeria] have shown that the next eruption may be this year," AFP reported him as saying.

Abuja is worried about the possibility of toxic gases contaminating water supplies and the air in the border areas and has set up a commission to review the possible environmental effects. The government has ordered three states bordering Cameroon Cross River, Benue and Taraba - to alert their populations and take precautions.

Mount Cameroon, in the southwest of the country close to Nigeria, last erupted in April 1999, forcing the evacuation of villagers living near the volcano. It lies along a fault line that includes lakes Nyos and Mounoun where emissions of toxic gases in 1986 killed 1,600 people.

A team of 10 environmental scientists from France, Japan and the United States began building a filtering device this year to release gases slowly from the lakes into the atmosphere.