According to Randy Joe Sa’ah of the BBC, some of the local residents have been alarmed due to a bad smell coming from Lake Kuk in North-West Cameroon.
An unexpected gas breakout from beneath Lake Nyos in 1986 resulted in the deaths of over 1,600 people and tens of thousands of cattle. The lake and the surrounding Kuk settlement are close to that location.
Villagers in Kuk who went to investigate the smell found that the water had changed colour.
Some then started to leave the area but others stayed put, linking the natural phenomenon to the recent death of a traditional ruler. In other words, the ancestors were responding to his passing.
Kahn Elvis, a geology expert from the University of Yaoundé, said the smell could have been caused by the sudden release of magma from beneath the lake’s surface.
The local authorities have urged people to be calm and said the strange smell and change in the water colour were due to the recent heavy rains, Journal du Cameroon reports.