Nearly 2,000 people perished down slope of Lake Nyos in August 1986, when the Lake burped and large volume of poisonous gas was suddenly released from the lake late one evening. Death came quickly. People simply “went to sleep” that night, and few ever awoke. The Crater Lake perched inside a dormant volcano, become overloaded with carbon dioxide gas. This gas had suddenly bubbled out of the lake and choked nearly every living being in the surrounding valley community.
Lake Nyos is one of only three lakes in the world known to be saturated with carbon dioxide—the others are Lake Monoun, also in Cameroon about 100 km away, and Lake Kivu in Rwanda.
The landscape was littered by the bodies of dead animals - only plant life survived.
Permanent habitations in vulnerable areas down slope are now prohibited.
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