Contents

Draft:Cameroon

Cameroon
Country



Native name
République du Cameroun




Capital
Yaoundé




Official languages
French and English


Demonym
Cameroonian




Legislature
Parliament








Currency
Central African CFA franc(XAF)



Calling code
+237






Website
Official website


Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa with an Atlantic coastline on the Gulf of Guinea. It borders Nigeria to the west and north-west, Chad to the north-east, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its capital is Yaoundé, while Douala is a major commercial and industrial centre. Cameroon covers about 475,442 square kilometres and had an estimated population of 29.9 million in 2025.[1][2]

French and English are the country's official languages, reflecting its colonial history under France and Britain after the First World War. Cameroon is culturally and linguistically diverse, with numerous African languages and communities spread across its forest, coastal, highland, savanna and Sahelian zones.[3]

Modern Cameroon developed from territories that were first brought under German colonial rule in the late 19th century and later divided between French and British administration. French-administered Cameroon became independent on 1 January 1960. Following a United Nations-supervised plebiscite in 1961, the southern part of British Cameroons joined the newly independent republic, while Northern Cameroons joined Nigeria.[4][5]

Cameroon has significant agricultural, forestry, petroleum, gas and mineral resources and is one of the larger economies of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).[6][7]

Geography

Cameroon lies between the Gulf of Guinea and the interior of Central Africa. Its location gives the country a wide range of landscapes, including humid coastal plains, equatorial forests, western highlands, the Adamawa Plateau, northern savannas and semi-arid areas approaching the Lake Chad basin. The country's climate therefore varies considerably from the humid south and coast to hotter and drier conditions in the north.[8]

Mount Cameroon, an active volcano near the Gulf of Guinea, is the country's highest mountain. The western part of Cameroon forms part of a volcanic highland system extending inland from the coast. Central and southern Cameroon contain extensive tropical forests, while the landscape becomes increasingly open and dry toward the north.[8]

Important river systems include the Sanaga, Nyong, Benue and tributaries of the Congo basin. The Sanaga is one of the major waterways crossing central Cameroon and has substantial hydroelectric potential.[9]

Cameroon has substantial biodiversity because of the transition between coastal ecosystems, tropical rainforest, mountains, savanna and the Lake Chad region. The country's protected areas include the Dja Faunal Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Cameroonian areas forming part of the transboundary Sangha Trinational.[10]

History

Early societies and regional kingdoms

The territory of modern Cameroon has long been home to diverse communities with different political and economic systems. Forest peoples lived in the south and east, while farming and trading societies developed across the western highlands and central regions. Northern Cameroon was influenced by Sahelian trade networks and Islamic states. Fulani expansion during the late 18th and early 19th centuries reshaped political authority across parts of northern Cameroon.[11]

European traders had reached the coast centuries earlier. Portuguese sailors visiting the region encountered the estuary of the Wouri River, and European commercial activity later expanded along the coast. European control of the interior remained limited until the colonial period of the late 19th century.[11]

German rule

Germany established the protectorate of Kamerun in 1884. German colonial authorities developed plantations, transport infrastructure and administrative centres while expanding control inland. During the First World War, British and French forces invaded the colony, ending German rule.[4][12]

Following the war, the former German territory was divided between Britain and France under the League of Nations mandate system. France administered the much larger eastern portion, while Britain administered territories adjoining Nigeria. Both mandates later became United Nations trust territories after the Second World War.[4]

Independence and reunification

Political movements demanding self-government became increasingly influential after the Second World War. In French Cameroon, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon (UPC) became an important nationalist movement. Conflict developed between the UPC, French colonial authorities and later the Cameroonian government, continuing into the years around independence.[12]

French Cameroon gained independence as the Republic of Cameroon on 1 January 1960. Ahmadou Ahidjo became its first president. In a United Nations-supervised plebiscite held in British Cameroons in 1961, Northern Cameroons chose integration with Nigeria, while Southern Cameroons chose to join the Republic of Cameroon. The union of Southern Cameroons and the Republic of Cameroon took effect on 1 October 1961, creating the Federal Republic of Cameroon.[4][5]

The federal arrangement preserved separate institutions in the former French and British territories for a period. A constitutional referendum in 1972 replaced the federation with a unitary state. The country's official name subsequently changed before the designation Republic of Cameroon was restored in 1984.[13]

Biya era

Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned in 1982 and was succeeded by Prime Minister Paul Biya. Cameroon later returned to multiparty politics, although the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement and Biya continued to hold national power through successive elections.[13]

In the English-speaking North-West and South-West regions, protests that began in 2016 over concerns including the use of French in courts and schools developed into a wider political and armed crisis. Separatist groups seeking independence for the two regions have fought government security forces, causing displacement, disruption to education and public services, and civilian casualties.[14][15]

Northern Cameroon has also been affected by insecurity associated with Boko Haram and related armed groups operating around the Lake Chad basin, particularly in the Far North Region.[16]

In the presidential election of 12 October 2025, the Constitutional Council officially declared Biya re-elected with 53.66 percent of valid votes, while Issa Tchiroma Bakary received 35.19 percent. Tchiroma and other opposition figures disputed the official result. Protests and confrontations between demonstrators and security forces followed the election, with differing casualty and arrest figures reported by government authorities and civil society organizations.[17][18]

Government and politics

Cameroon is a presidential republic governed under a constitution that establishes executive, legislative and judicial institutions. The president is head of state, while the prime minister is head of government. As of September 2026, Paul Biya serves as president and Joseph Dion Ngute as prime minister.[1][19]

The national legislature is the Parliament of Cameroon, composed of the National Assembly and the Senate. The president is elected for a seven-year term under the constitutional system.[20]

Cameroon is a member of the African Union, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, CEMAC and other regional and international organizations. Cameroon was among the founding members of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963, whose successor is the African Union.[21]

Administrative divisions

Cameroon is divided into ten administrative regions: Adamawa, Centre, East, Far North, Littoral, North, North-West, West, South and South-West.[22]

The regions are subdivided into 58 divisions and 360 subdivisions. Regional governors are appointed by the president, while other systems of local and regional administration operate alongside traditional chiefdoms recognized within the country's administrative framework.[22]

The North-West and South-West regions are the country's two predominantly English-speaking administrative regions, reflecting their historical association with British-administered Southern Cameroons.[23][24]

Economy

Cameroon has a diversified economy by regional standards, combining agriculture, forestry, oil and gas production, manufacturing, services and trade. Important agricultural products include cocoa, coffee, cotton, maize and cassava, while the country also possesses timber, petroleum, natural gas and mineral resources.[6]

According to World Bank data, Cameroon's gross domestic product was approximately US$58.93 billion in 2025, with GDP per capita of about US$1,972. Real GDP expanded by about 3.2 percent in 2025 according to the World Bank series.[2]

The International Monetary Fund estimated growth at 3.1 percent for 2025 and projected a recovery to 3.3 percent in 2026. The IMF has identified infrastructure gaps, access to finance, public investment management, state-owned enterprise governance and fiscal pressures among the structural issues affecting economic growth. It also assessed Cameroon as facing a high overall risk of debt distress.[7][25]

Cameroon belongs to CEMAC and uses the Central African CFA franc, issued by the Bank of Central African States (BEAC). The currency is shared with the Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon and has a fixed exchange rate of 655.957 CFA francs to one euro. BEAC is headquartered in Yaoundé.[26][27]

Douala functions as the principal commercial and port centre, while Yaoundé is the political and administrative capital. Transport infrastructure links major urban centres and agricultural zones, although infrastructure limitations remain an important constraint on development.[6]

Demographics

The World Bank estimated Cameroon's population at 29,879,337 in 2025, with annual population growth of about 2.6 percent.[2] The population is unevenly distributed, with dense settlement in parts of the western highlands, the Far North and major urban areas, while some forested eastern areas are much more sparsely populated.[8]

Cameroon contains a large number of ethnic and linguistic communities. Major population groupings include peoples of the western highlands, forest and coastal Bantu-speaking communities, northern Fulani and other Sahelian peoples, and Indigenous forest communities. Ethnic identities often overlap with regional, linguistic and historical affiliations, and the country does not have a single majority ethnic group.[3]

Languages

French and English are the official languages. French is more widely used across much of the country, while English has a particularly strong institutional and historical role in the North-West and South-West regions. Cameroonian Pidgin English is also widely used in parts of the country, alongside many Indigenous languages including Fulfulde, Ewondo, Duala and numerous Grassfields languages.[3][23]

The coexistence of French and English is rooted in the division of the former German colony between French and British administrations after the First World War.[4]

Religion

Christianity and Islam are the two largest religious traditions in Cameroon, alongside Indigenous belief systems and people without a religious affiliation. Religious distribution differs by region. Christianity is especially widespread in southern, western and English-speaking areas, while Muslim communities are particularly important in the northern regions and among groups such as the Fulani and Bamoun.[28]

A 2005 national census cited by the U.S. Department of State reported 69.2 percent of the population as Christian and 20.9 percent as Muslim, while later international estimates have produced somewhat different proportions.[29]

Health and education

World Bank data placed life expectancy at birth at about 64 years in 2024. Cameroon continues to face differences in access to healthcare between urban and rural areas and additional pressures in regions affected by conflict and displacement.[2][15]

Education is provided through systems shaped by both the French and British educational traditions. Schools in the North-West and South-West have been particularly affected by the Anglophone crisis, which has caused closures, insecurity and interruptions to children's education since the conflict intensified.[30]

UNESCO and World Bank data show continuing differences in literacy between men and women. World Bank reporting based on UNESCO Institute for Statistics data recorded adult literacy rates of 79.7 percent for men and 66.2 percent for women for the relevant 2018 indicator.[31]

Culture

Cameroonian culture reflects the country's extensive linguistic, ethnic and regional diversity. Music, dance, oral traditions, religious ceremonies, craftwork, food and traditional systems of leadership vary considerably between communities and regions.

Popular musical styles associated with Cameroon include makossa, which developed strongly around Douala, and bikutsi, associated particularly with Beti-speaking communities in central Cameroon. Cameroonian musicians have contributed to the international spread of African popular music.

Traditional political and ceremonial institutions remain significant in several parts of the country. The western highlands contain a number of long-established chiefdoms and kingdoms, including the Bamoun kingdom, while northern communities include traditional lamidates influenced by Fulani political history.

Cameroon has four elements currently listed by UNESCO as part of its Intangible Cultural Heritage: the Nguon rituals and expressions of the Bamoun community, Ngondo traditions among the Sawa, Mvet Oyeng traditions associated with the Ekang community, and Guruna practices among the Massa.[32]

World Heritage Sites

As of 2026, Cameroon has three properties inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The Dja Faunal Reserve was inscribed in 1987, while the Sangha Trinational, shared with the Central African Republic and Republic of the Congo, was inscribed in 2012.[10]

In 2025, UNESCO added the Diy-Gid-Biy Cultural Landscape of the Mandara Mountains in Cameroon's Far North Region. The property includes archaeological ruins and agricultural terraces associated with communities in the Mandara Mountains and became the country's first cultural property on the World Heritage List.[33]

Environment and conservation

Cameroon's ecosystems include Atlantic coastal habitats, mangroves, tropical rainforest, montane environments, savannas and dry northern landscapes. This ecological range supports significant plant and animal diversity.

The Dja Faunal Reserve protects a large tract of tropical forest in southern Cameroon. Sangha Trinational forms part of a much larger transboundary forest conservation area shared with neighbouring Central African states.[10]

Conservation challenges include habitat loss, illegal hunting, pressure from infrastructure and resource extraction, and the effects of climate change. UNESCO has continued to monitor the conservation status of Cameroon's World Heritage properties and has supported conservation activities around the Dja reserve.[34]

Sport

Association football is one of the most widely followed sports in Cameroon. The men's national team, commonly known as the Indomitable Lions, has been one of Africa's prominent national sides and has represented Cameroon at multiple FIFA World Cup tournaments. Cameroon has also achieved international success in women's football, athletics, boxing and other sports.

Football has a strong place in national popular culture, with domestic clubs, local competitions and international matches drawing large audiences.

International relations

Cameroon maintains diplomatic relations with countries across Africa and other regions and participates in several international and regional organizations. It is a member of the United Nations, African Union, Commonwealth, Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, CEMAC and the Economic Community of Central African States.[21]

Its location gives Cameroon an important role in regional issues involving Central Africa, the Gulf of Guinea and the Lake Chad basin. The country also hosts refugees, particularly from the Central African Republic and Nigeria, while internal conflicts have displaced Cameroonians within the country and into neighbouring states.[6][16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Republic of Cameroon. African Union. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Cameroon – Data. World Bank. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Background Notes: Cameroon. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cameroon. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Cameroon – A Guide to the United States’ History of Recognition, Diplomatic, and Consular Relations. Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Cameroon Overview. World Bank. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 IMF Executive Board Concludes 2026 Article IV Consultation with Cameroon. International Monetary Fund. 30 March 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Cameroon – Country Summary. CIA World Factbook archive. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  9. ↑ Centre Region. Ministry of Territorial Administration, Cameroon. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Cameroon. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Cameroon – Background Note. U.S. Department of State archive. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Position de l'U.P.C. vis-à-vis de l'Indépendance du Kamerun. Library of Congress. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Cameroon – Background Note. U.S. Department of State archive. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  14. ↑ Crisis worsens in Cameroon. United Nations Africa Renewal. 7 December 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Rebuilding the Basics: Restored Infrastructure Changing Lives in Cameroon’s Far North, North-West and South-West Regions. United Nations in Cameroon. 25 March 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Evaluation of the Peacebuilding Fund Portfolio in Cameroon 2019–2024. United Nations Peacebuilding. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  17. ↑ Cameroon's Biya declared vote winner, opposition reports gunfire. Reuters. 27 October 2025. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  18. ↑ Report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Central Africa and the activities of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa. United Nations. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  19. ↑ Voeux de Nouvel An 2026 à Mr Premier Ministre Chef du Gouvernement. Prime Minister's Office, Cameroon. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  20. ↑ Cameroon – Country Summary. CIA World Factbook archive. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Member States of the AU. African Union. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Services Locaux. Ministry of Territorial Administration, Cameroon. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 North-West Region. Ministry of Territorial Administration, Cameroon. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  24. ↑ South-West Region. Ministry of Territorial Administration, Cameroon. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  25. ↑ Cameroon: 2026 Article IV Consultation. International Monetary Fund. 3 April 2026. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  26. ↑ Frequently Asked Questions. Bank of Central African States. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  27. ↑ La BEAC. Bank of Central African States. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  28. ↑ 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Cameroon. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  29. ↑ 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom: Cameroon. U.S. Department of State. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  30. ↑ Community Radios at the Frontline of Distance Learning in the Southwest Region of Cameroon. United Nations in Cameroon. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  31. ↑ Cameroon – Gender Data Portal. World Bank. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  32. ↑ Cameroon – Intangible Cultural Heritage. UNESCO. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  33. ↑ Diy-Gid-Biy Cultural Landscape of the Mandara Mountains – Decision 47 COM 8B.10. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
  34. ↑ Cameroon – International Assistance. UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Retrieved 26 September 2026.
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