I | INTRODUCTION |
Cameroon, republic in western Africa, bounded on the
north by Lake Chad; on the east by Chad and the Central African Republic; on the
south by the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea; and on the
west by the Bight of Biafra (an arm of the Atlantic Ocean) and Nigeria. The
country is shaped like an elongated triangle, and forms a bridge between West
Africa and Central Africa. The country has a total area of 475,442 sq km
(183,569 sq mi). Yaoundé is the capital, and Douala is the largest city.
II | LAND AND RESOURCES |
Cameroon has four distinct topographical
regions. In the south is a coastal plain, a region of dense equatorial rain
forests. In the center is the Adamawa Plateau, a region with elevations reaching
about 1,370 m (about 4,500 ft) above sea level. This is a transitional area
where forest gives way in the north to savanna country. In the far north the
savanna gradually slopes into the marshland surrounding Lake Chad. In the west
is an area of high, forested mountains of volcanic origin. Located here is
Cameroon Mountain (4,095 m/13,435 ft), the highest peak in western Africa and an
active volcano. The country’s most fertile soils are found in this region. Among
the principal streams, the Sanaga and Nyong rivers flow generally west to the
Atlantic Ocean, and the Mbéré and Logone rivers flow north from the central
plateau into Lake Chad. A network of rivers in the Chad Basin, including the
Benue River, links the country with the vast Niger River system to the east and
north.
A | Climate |
Cameroon has a tropical climate, humid in
the south but increasingly dry to the north. On the coast the average annual
rainfall is about 4,060 mm (about 160 in). On the exposed slopes of Cameroon
Mountain and the other peaks of the west, rainfall is almost constant and in
places can reach 10,000 mm (400 in) a year. In the semiarid northwest annual
rainfall averages about 380 mm (about 15 in). A dry season in the north lasts
from October to April. The average temperature in the south is 25°C (77°F), on
the plateau it is 21°C (70°F), and in the north it is 32°C (90°F).
B | Plants and Animals |
Cameroon’s valuable rain forests contain a
number of species of trees, including oil palms, bamboo palms, mahogany, teak,
ebony, and rubber. Wildlife is diverse and abundant and includes monkeys,
chimpanzees, gorillas, antelopes, lions, and elephants, as well as numerous
species of birds, squirrels, frogs, and snakes.
C | Natural Resources |
Cameroon has significant offshore petroleum
reserves. The country’s economy is also dependent on its agricultural and timber
resources. Other important mineral reserves in Cameroon include gold, bauxite,
uranium, and limestone. Hydroelectric power stations on Cameroon’s rivers,
particularly the Sanaga, provide enough electricity to meet almost all of the
country’s needs.
III | POPULATION |
The population of Cameroon (2008 estimate) is
18,467,692, giving the country an overall population density of 39 persons per
sq km (102 per sq mi). About half of all Cameroonians live in urban areas. The
other half of the population are farmers who live in small towns or villages in
southern and central Cameroon or seminomadic herders inhabiting the north.
A | Principal Cities |
The capital of Cameroon is Yaoundé. Douala,
on the Bight of Biafra, is the largest city and the country’s chief port. Other
principal towns include the northern river port of Garoua, the northern market
center of Maroua, the southwestern industrial city of Nkongsamba, and Bafoussam,
in the western mountains.
B | Religion and Language |
About 24 percent of the population
adheres to traditional religions, about 21 percent of the population are
Muslims, and most of the remainder are Christians. Muslims predominate in the
north and Christians in the south. Cameroon contains about 200 ethnic groups who
speak as many different languages. In general, Bantu-speaking peoples inhabit
the south, and Sudanic-speaking peoples dominate in the north. Among the more
important ethnic groups are the Bamileke, a Bantu-speaking people, and the
Fulani, a Muslim people. French and English are both official languages. French
dominates, however; English is confined mainly to the west.
C | Education |
In 2002–2003, virtually all primary
school-aged children were enrolled in school, but only 31 percent of
appropriately aged children attended secondary school. About 81 percent of adult
Cameroonians are literate. Mission schools play an important role in education
and are partly subsidized by the government. Institutes of higher education
include the University of Yaoundé (founded in 1962), the University of Dschang
(1993), and the University of Douala (1977). In 2002–2003 a total of 81,318
students were enrolled in institutions of higher education.
IV | ECONOMY |
Cameroon’s traditionally agricultural economy
began changing in the late 20th century with the discovery and exploitation of
offshore petroleum reserves. Agricultural activities are still the main
occupation of 61 percent of Cameroon’s population and still contribute the
largest share of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). In the early 21st
century, however, petroleum surpassed agricultural products in export earnings.
In 1999 the national budget showed revenues of $1.2 billion and expenditures of
$1.4 billion.
A | Agriculture |
The principal commercial crops in Cameroon
are cacao, coffee, bananas, and sugarcane. Other commercial products include
palm oil, rubber, and cotton. Subsistence crops include plantains, sweet
potatoes, cassava, corn, millet, and rice. Livestock raising is important in the
Adamawa Plateau region and is central to the lives of the seminomadic herders of
the north. Cattle, goats, and fowl are the most commonly raised animals.
B | Forestry and Fishing |
Timber is traditionally one of Cameroon’s
most valuable exports, consisting mainly of mahogany, ebony, and teak. The
timber cut in 2006 amounted to 11.4 million cu m (401 million cu ft). Most of
the fish caught in Cameroon come from the country’s rivers and lakes and are
consumed locally. However, deep-sea fishing activity is increasing, especially
from the port of Douala. Some 142,682 metric tons of fish are caught
annually.
C | Mining and Manufacturing |
Offshore petroleum exploitation began in
the late 1970s, and an oil refinery has been built on the coast at Limboh Point.
Cameroon’s output of crude petroleum, mostly for export, was 24 million barrels
in 2004. Small amounts of gold and tin concentrates are also mined. One of the
largest single industrial enterprises in Cameroon is a huge aluminum smelting
plant at Edéa. Despite the presence of extensive bauxite reserves in Cameroon,
the aluminum produced in the country is derived from imported bauxite because
the government has yet to develop the infrastructure necessary to exploit its
own supply. The processing of petroleum and agricultural products, such as palms
and sugar, dominates industrial activity in Cameroon. Other manufactures include
cement, textiles, and fertilizers.
D | Currency, Banking, and Commerce |
The unit of currency of Cameroon is the
CFA franc, consisting of 100 centimes (522.90 CFA francs equal
U.S.$1; 2006 average). The currency is issued by the Bank of the States of
Central Africa (headquartered in Yaoundé), the central bank of a monetary union
formed by six Central African states. In 2003, Cameroon’s exports earned $2.2
billion while imports cost $2 billion. Spain, Italy, France, Netherlands, and
the United States are leading partners for exports; France, Nigeria, the United
States, Germany, and Japan are leading partners for imports.
E | Transportation and Communications |
Of the 50,000 km (31,069 mi) of roads,
only about 10 percent are paved. Unpaved roads are frequently impassable during
the rainy season. The country has 1,016 km (631 mi) of railroad. The
overwhelming majority of port traffic is handled at Douala; Kribi is the
country’s second port. The port of Garoua on the Benue River in the north is
open two to three months a year and handles most of the trade with Nigeria.
Cameroon Airlines provides domestic and international service. The main
international airports are at Douala, Garoua, and Yaoundé. A state-run radio and
television broadcasting system, with its headquarters at Yaoundé, operates local
stations in cities across the country. Mobile telephones are much more prevalent
than telephone mainlines in Cameroon, and in 2006 about 370,000 Cameroonians
were online.
V | GOVERNMENT |
Cameroon is governed under a constitution
promulgated in 1972 and subsequently revised. Citizens of age 21 or higher are
eligible to vote.
A | Executive and Legislature |
The president of the republic is chief of
state and commander of the armed forces and is elected by universal suffrage. A
1995 amendment to the constitution extended the president’s term from five years
to seven and introduced a two-term limit (effective starting with the 1997
election). However, in 2008 the legislature abolished the two-term limit. The
federal ministers, including the prime minister, are appointed by the president
and are not permitted to be members of the legislature. The president also
appoints the governors of the country’s ten provinces. Legislative power in
Cameroon is vested in the single-chamber National Assembly, which consists of
180 members elected to five-year terms.
B | Judiciary |
The judicial system of Cameroon is based
largely on the French system, with a mixture of elements from the British
system. The highest judicial body is the Supreme Court. Other courts are the
appeals courts, regional courts, and magistrates’ courts.
C | Political Parties |
The leading political party in Cameroon is
the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (French initials RDPC), founded in
1966 as the National Cameroonian Union and renamed in 1985. The main opposition
parties are the Social Democratic Front, the Cameroon Democratic Union, the
Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, and the National Union for Democracy and
Progress.
VI | HISTORY |
The coast of present-day Cameroon was
explored late in the 15th century by the Portuguese, who named the estuary to
the south of Cameroon Mountain Rio das Camerões (“river of prawns”). Merchants
established trading stations along the coast in the 17th century, buying slaves,
ivory, and rubber. British traders and missionaries were especially active in
the area after 1845. The Germans and British began to explore inland after 1860,
and in 1884 the former established a protectorate over the Douala area; the
British, taken by surprise, offered no resistance to their claim.
A | European Rule |
Transportation difficulties and local
resistance slowed German development of the area, but they managed to cultivate
large cacao, palm, and rubber plantations. They also built roads and began the
construction of a railroad and the port of Douala on the Atlantic coast.
Anglo-French forces invaded the German
colony in 1916. In 1919 one-fifth of the territory, which was contiguous with
eastern Nigeria, was assigned to Britain, and the remaining four-fifths were
assigned to France as mandates under the League of Nations.
The British Cameroons consisted of the
Northern and Southern Cameroons, which were separated by a 72-km (45-mi) strip
along the Benue River. The northern territory, peopled by tribes of Sudanese
origin, was always administered as a part of Northern Nigeria. The Southern
Cameroons, peopled by a variety of tribes, was administered as part of the
Nigerian federation but had a locally elected legislature. The French Cameroons
was administered as a separate territory. Neither area, however, experienced
much social or economic progress.
B | Independence |
After World War II ended in 1945, the
mandates were made trust territories of the United Nations (UN). In the
following years political ferment grew enormously in the French territory, where
more than 100 parties were formed between 1948 and 1960. The campaign for
independence, intermittently violent, gained steady momentum during the 1950s,
until the French granted self-government in December 1958; full independence was
achieved on January 1, 1960. Ahmadou Ahidjo, prime minister since 1958, became
the first president. The new republic was admitted to the UN in September
1960.
The following year the UN sponsored a
plebiscite in the British Cameroons. As a result, the Southern Cameroons joined
the Republic of Cameroon to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon in October
1961, while the Northern Cameroons joined Nigeria.
When Cameroon became independent,
President Ahidjo’s government was faced with a rebellion incited by the
Cameroonian People’s Union, a pro-Communist party. By 1963, however, the revolt
had been suppressed, and Ahidjo soon established the authority of his regime. In
1966 the six major parties merged into the National Cameroonian Union, which was
declared the only legal party in the country. In 1972 Ahidjo sponsored a
national referendum that changed Cameroon from a federal to a unitary state,
called the United Republic of Cameroon.
C | Biya’s Rule |
Reaffirmed in office in 1975 and again in
1980, President Ahidjo resigned unexpectedly in November 1982. He was succeeded
in office by Paul Biya, the former prime minister. Relations between Biya and
Ahidjo deteriorated, and in July 1983 Ahidjo (who had retained the leadership of
the National Cameroonian Union) went into exile in France and gave up his party
post, which Biya assumed. Biya won election to his first full term as president
in January 1984. During the same month, the constitution was amended to abolish
the office of prime minister and to change the country’s name to the Republic of
Cameroon. Biya suppressed a coup attempt that April.
In late August 1986 an explosive discharge
of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from Lake Nios, a volcanic lake near the
Nigerian border, killed more than 1,700 people in the valleys below.
International medical and economic aid was sent to the area.
Biya ran unopposed in the presidential
election of April 1988, held a year ahead of schedule to coincide with
legislative balloting. Facing rising popular discontent in the early 1990s, he
began to implement political reforms. Biya won a 40 percent plurality in the
nation’s first multiparty presidential election, held in October 1992. In
November 1995 Cameroon became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Early in 1994 a border dispute arose
between Nigeria and Cameroon after Nigerian troops invaded the petroleum-rich
Bakassi Peninsula of Cameroon. The Nigerian government claimed that a
19th-century treaty made Nigeria the rightful owner of the peninsula. The
Cameroonian government filed a complaint with the International Court of Justice
(ICJ), and the two nations started negotiations in March. In October 2002 the
ICJ ruled in favor of Cameroon and ordered Nigerian forces to leave the
area.
Biya faced increasing opposition leading
up to 1997 legislative and presidential elections. In elections to the National
Assembly held that May, Biya’s party, the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement
(Rassemblement démocratique du peuple camerounais, or RDPC), won a majority of
seats amid violent confrontations between rival political groups and allegations
of electoral fraud. The three main opposition parties boycotted the October
presidential elections, and Biya was reelected in a landslide. Election
observers estimated that voter participation was less than 30 percent in the
presidential elections. Biya’s party dominated June 2002 legislative elections
and he was reelected, again by a landslide, in October 2004.
Opposition parties filed protests
following the 2007 legislative elections, in which Biya’s RDPC again won by a
landslide with a reported voter turnout of more than 60 percent. The official
vote gave the RDPC more than 150 seats in the 180-member legislature. The
opposition charged election irregularities and ballot stuffing. In 2008 the
RDPC-dominated legislature abolished a two-term limit that had been imposed on
the presidency in 1997, thereby giving Biya the option of again running for the
office.
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