By Ike Uchechukwu
Tragedy struck over the weekend in Ikot Awatin community, Calabar municipality, Cross River State as torrential rain triggered a landslide, killing four siblings
The tragic incident occurred just three days after floodwaters claimed the life of a one-year-old child and destroyed property worth millions of naira along Mayne Avenue by Atu Street in Calabar South Local Government Area.
The deceased siblings, identified as Bright Kingsley Edu, 18; Godswill Kingsley Edu, 12; Daniel Kingsley Edu, 11; and Richard Kingsley Edu, 10, sons and a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley Edu were buried alive alongside a man identified only as Mr. Udo, a tanker driver attached to a fuel depot. By the time community youths, working through the night with bare hands and shovels, finished digging through the rubble; all five victims were recovered dead.
A mother’s grief
For Mrs. Mercy Kingsley Edu, popularly known within the community as Mama Uwana, Friday began like any other.
She had taken her children to church for evening service. As the rain worsened, the children, ever mindful of the weather, left ahead of her to beat the storm home, while their father, a security officer, was away on official duty. They never had inkling it would be their final walk home.
According to Mrs Edu, the children returned, changed into dry clothes, and lay down to rest, unaware that the saturated earth above their home was already giving way. Moments later, the landslide struck, burying the house and trapping them beneath the debris.
Speaking at the scene on Saturday, a distraught Mrs. Edu, a waterleaf farmer who lost not just her children but everything she owned, could barely find words for her loss.
“Everything was buried in the landslide, taking my children and leaving us hopeless and homeless,” she lamented.
“Why me?, she wailed. “Four out of seven are gone in one day. My husband never buys anything for himself because he wants his children to go to school, three boys and a girl, all gone.”
Her husband, Mr. Kingsley Edu, stood at the scene speechless as sympathisers and neighbours gathered around the couple to offer what comfort they could.
A community in mourning
The four children were buried shortly after their bodies were recovered, while the remains of Mr. Udo were deposited in a morgue, with his family left to grapple with the sudden loss of a breadwinner who had simply been doing his job on a stormy night.
Residents and sympathisers who trooped to the scene were shocked by the scale of the devastation, calling on the Cross River State Government and well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of the Edu family, who in a single night lost four children and the roof over their heads.
Government response
The Cross River State Emergency Management Agency (CR-SEMA) led by its Director-General, Mr. Efa Nyong, working alongside the Disaster Management Unit of the Nigerian Red Cross Society, conducted a three-hour, on-the-spot assessment of the site on Saturday.
The team, which included the Red Cross’s Disaster Management Officer, Mr. Agbor Okim, and CR-SEMA’s Head of Relief and Rehabilitation, Mrs. Preye Obo, walked through the wreckage, spoke with grieving family members, and documented the extent of the destruction.
Mr. Nyong described the loss of the children as heartbreaking and conveyed the sympathy of the state government to the bereaved families, assuring residents that the government would work with relevant stakeholders to provide support.
He explained that the assessment was designed to guide the government’s response, from immediate humanitarian intervention to longer-term measures aimed at reducing the risk of future disasters.
Mr. Nyong urged residents in landslide and erosion-prone communities to remain vigilant, to promptly report signs of soil movement or land cracks, and to cooperate with authorities when evacuation becomes necessary.
Speaking on behalf of affected families, Mr. Bassey Patrick thanked the assessment team for responding promptly despite the difficult circumstances and called for more emergency assistance for survivors who, in his words, had lost loved ones and struggling to cope with the aftermath of the disaster.
