Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A weekend of torrential rainfall in Calabar, Cross River State, has ended in tragedy after a landslide triggered by the downpour buried a family home alive, killing four siblings and a fuel tanker driver in the Ikot Awatin community, Calabar Municipality. The deceased siblings were identified as Bright Kingsley Edu, 18; Godswill Kingsley Edu, 12; Daniel Kingsley Edu, 11; and Richard Kingsley Edu, 10—the children of Mr. and Mrs. Kingsley Edu. The fifth victim, a man identified only as Mr. Udo, was a tanker driver attached to a fuel depot who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
According to accounts from the scene, the children had attended evening church service with their mother, Mrs. Mercy Kingsley Edu, on Friday, 10 July 2026. As the rain intensified, the children left ahead of their mother to beat the storm home, while their father, a security officer, was away on official duty. They 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.
Community youths worked through the night with bare hands and shovels, digging through the rubble in a desperate rescue effort. By the time they finished, all five victims had been recovered dead. The four siblings were buried shortly after their bodies were recovered, while the remains of Mr. Udo were deposited in a morgue, leaving his family to grapple with the sudden loss of a breadwinner.
Speaking at the scene on Saturday, 11 July 2026, 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? 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.
The tragedy 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 in Calabar South Local Government Area. Residents and sympathisers who trooped to the scene called 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.
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 walked through the wreckage, spoke with grieving family members, and documented the extent of the destruction. 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 preventing future tragedies.
As the community of Ikot Awatin mourns the devastating loss, the Edu family faces an uncertain future, having lost their children, their home, and all their possessions in a single night of relentless rain.
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