Photo credit: @hairydel | Youtube

Nothing but bad news coming out of Africa this week apparently. After a bloodless coup in Zimbabwe and slave markets in Libya, we need to report on a fire in the Cameroon parliament before the week is over.

Overnight, a large fire swept through the main building of Cameroon’s parliament in Yaounde, which caused substantial damage.

Public broadcaster CRTV stated: “Firefighters are working to put out the blaze.”

“Several deputies from all parties and administrative authorities are helping the deployment of firefighters to stop the flames, which have already ravaged four floors of the administrative block of the building.”

<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fire fighters overwhelmed by the flames. <br>The building is still on fire. The fire broke out at 9:50pm Cameroon time <a href="https://t.co/4vknww0THg">pic.twitter.com/4vknww0THg</a></p>— Mimi237 (@Mimimefo237) <a href="https://twitter.com/Mimimefo237/status/931297245722546176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 16, 2017</a></blockquote>

<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Firefighters did manage to put out the fire in the early hours of the morning before it could reach the parliamentary chamber and cause further damage.

So far, there has been no indication of any casualties and the cause of the blaze remained unclear.

During the night, Members of Parliament, administrative and security officials came by at the National Assembly for a first-hand appraisal of the flames that have devastated parts of the building.

First reports say that faulty electrical wiring caused the fired but officials did not want to rush to conclusions.

During this week's parliamentary sessions, the members of parliament had gathered multiple times to discuss the Cameroon budget.

Cameroon is a former French-British colony that was granted independence in the middle of the 20th century. It is one of the better-growing economies of middle Africa, with GDP increasing at an average of 4% per year.

Source:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42024655