🇨🇲 Cameroon

Archaeological excavations at Shum Laka in the Northwest Region provide evidence of human habitation stretching back some 30,000 years. Groups such as the Baka (Pygmies) are the longest continuous inhabitants, establishing Cameroon as one of the deepest-rooted settlement zones in Central Africa.

Bantu migrations out of the Cameroon region are believed to have occurred about 2,000 years ago. These movements shaped the ethnolinguistic composition of much of sub-Saharan Africa and mark Cameroon's role as a dispersal hearth.

The Sao culture emerged near Lake Chad around 500 CE and was succeeded by the Kanem state and its successor, the Bornu Empire. In parallel, kingdoms, fondoms and chiefdoms developed in the west, forming the political landscape encountered by later arrivals.

Portuguese navigators arrived on the coast and, noting the abundance of ghost shrimp in the Wouri River, named it Shrimp River, which became Cameroon in English. Over subsequent centuries European traders regularised commerce with coastal peoples and Christian missionaries pushed inland.

Fulani forces established the Adamawa Emirate across northern Cameroon during the nineteenth century. Meanwhile ethnic groups of the west and northwest consolidated powerful chiefdoms and fondoms, creating the layered indigenous polities later confronted by colonial powers.

German commercial presence in Cameroon began with the Woermann Company's warehouse on the estuary of the Wouri River. This trading foothold preceded formal annexation and set the pattern of company-led commerce that shaped the colony.

Following Gustav Nachtigal's treaty with a local king, Germany annexed the region and declared the colony of Kamerun, pushing steadily inland against resistance in the Bafut and Adamawa Wars. Commercial concessions served as local administrations and used forced labour on banana, rubber, palm oil and cocoa plantations, drawing criticism from rival colonial powers.

Sultan Ibrahim Njoya devised the Bamum script, also called Shu Mom, an indigenous writing system for the Bamum language. It remains taught in Cameroon through the Bamum Scripts and Archives Project, a rare instance of an African-invented script surviving colonisation.

With Germany's defeat in World War I, Kamerun became a League of Nations mandate territory divided between France and the United Kingdom. France integrated the territory's economy with its own and invested in infrastructure, while Britain administered its portion from neighbouring Nigeria, prompting complaints of being a neglected colony of a colony.

The colonial authorities established Cameroon's first protected areas in the north, beginning with the Mozogo Gokoro and Bénoué Reserves. This laid the foundation of the national conservation estate that now covers a substantial share of forest area.

The Waza Reserve was created on 24 March 1934, following the earlier Mozogo Gokoro and Bénoué reserves. It extended the northern protected-area network that underpins Cameroon's wildlife conservation capability.

The League of Nations mandates over French and British Cameroon were converted into United Nations Trusteeships in 1946. The change made independence a pressing political question, particularly in French Cameroon.

On 13 July 1955 France banned the UPC, the leading pro-independence party. The ban triggered a prolonged guerrilla war and the assassination of party leaders including Ruben Um Nyobè, Félix-Roland Moumié and Ernest Ouandie, shaping the authoritarian character of the post-independence state.

Independence was proclaimed on 1 January 1960 under President Ahmadou Ahidjo, following an armed independence struggle by the UPC party that continued in parts of the country for several years afterwards.

A UN-supervised plebiscite in February 1961 saw British Southern Cameroons opt for reunification with the newly independent Republic of Cameroon rather than union with Nigeria, while British Northern Cameroons voted separately to join Nigeria. On 1 October 1961, by vote of the UN General Assembly, Southern Cameroons gained independence and joined the Republic, forming a federation of East and West Cameroon, each with its own legislature, government and prime minister; 1 October is observed as Unification Day, and the split later fed lasting tension between the country's English and French-speaking regions.

On 1 September 1966 Ahidjo's Cameroon National Union became the only lawful political party. Combined with the ongoing war against the UPC, this allowed the president to concentrate power decisively in the executive.

The national liberation insurgency waged by the UPC against French and then Cameroonian forces ended with the movement's suppression in January 1971. Ahidjo used the long conflict to justify concentrating power in the presidency and continued to do so afterwards.

A referendum passed on 20 May 1972 replaced the Federal Republic of Cameroon, which had joined French and English-speaking territories in a two-state federation, with a single centralised United Republic governed from Yaoundé. The date became the country's National Day, and the change removed the institutional autonomy of the former British Southern Cameroons; critics later cited it as a root cause of grievances behind the Anglophone Crisis.

On 20 May 1975 the two stars on the flag were replaced with a single large central star symbolising national unity. The change reflected the consolidation of the unitary state after the abolition of federalism.

The country's general stability permitted the development of agriculture, roads and railways, as well as a petroleum industry after oil production began in the late 1970s.

From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s international conditions, drought, falling petroleum prices, corruption and mismanagement drove a severe economic crisis. The government turned to foreign aid, cut spending and privatised industries, adopting World Bank and IMF programmes that reshaped economic policy.

Ahidjo, who had led Cameroon since independence, stood down on 4 November 1982 in a planned transition. He remained head of the ruling party until a falling out with Biya led him into exile after a failed coup attempt against his successor in 1984.

President Biya renamed the state the Republic of Cameroon in 1984, dropping the 'United' designation adopted in 1972. Anglophone groups later cited the change as evidence of the erasure of the former federal settlement.

The gas cloud, released from the volcanic crater lake on 21 August 1986, suffocated people and livestock in the surrounding valleys as they slept. It remains one of the few recorded limnic eruptions and prompted the installation of degassing pipes in the lake.

Dja Faunal Reserve was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1987. It was Cameroon's first such inscription, raising the international profile of its conservation estate.

Until December 1990 Biya's Cameroon People's Democratic Movement was the only legal party. Legalisation of opposition parties opened political space, but also allowed former British Southern Cameroons pressure groups to press for autonomy, with the Southern Cameroons National Council advocating secession as the Republic of Ambazonia.

The October 1992 vote, held after two years of pro-democracy pressure ended one-party rule, gave Biya a narrow official victory over opposition leader John Fru Ndi. The result triggered unrest and a state of emergency in the Northwest Region.

The Labour Code of 1992 gave workers the freedom to belong to a trade union or to abstain from union membership. With more than one union in each occupation, the law established a framework of voluntary and plural union representation.

Fighting broke out over the oil-rich peninsula in the mid-1990s after decades of unresolved colonial-era boundary disputes. Cameroon took the case to the International Court of Justice, which ruled in its favour in 2002.

Cameroon took its territorial dispute with Nigeria over the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to the ICJ in 1994. The two states share a 1,600 km border and an attempted 1996 ceasefire failed to stop years of fighting.

The deal, signed on 3 February 2026, allows the two neighbours to jointly extract natural gas from a field straddling their maritime border, part of both countries' efforts to expand gas exports and processing capacity in the Gulf of Guinea.

The journalist and three other reporters and a lawyer were held in Yaoundé on 17 February 2026 while attempting to cover African migrants recently deported from the United States. The incident drew criticism from press-freedom advocates.

The court sentenced the soldiers to up to ten years in prison on 19 February 2026 for their role in the killing of villagers, including children, in the Northwest Region during the Anglophone conflict. Rights groups had long pressed for accountability over the massacre.

The attack in Ndu, Northwest Region, on 14 January 2026 struck an area long affected by separatist violence in Cameroon's Anglophone conflict, now in its ninth year.

Ekane, who had been arrested in October 2025 amid protests over the disputed presidential election, died on 1 December 2025. His death drew condemnation from opposition figures who blamed his treatment in custody.

The strike, launched on 3 December 2025 in protest at the beating of a driver by a gendarme in Meiganga, paralysed traffic on Cameroon's main trade corridor linking the south to Chad and the Central African Republic.

Biya, the world's oldest serving head of state, was sworn in on 6 November 2025 after an election the opposition said was marred by fraud. He has governed Cameroon since 1982.

Tchiroma, who had disputed Paul Biya's re-election and briefly claimed victory himself, left Cameroon on 7 November 2025 citing safety concerns after protests over the election were suppressed with several deaths.

Official results from the 12 October 2025 election gave Biya an eighth term, ahead of former minister Issa Tchiroma on 35.2 per cent. The opposition disputed the count, and the result triggered protests in several cities.

The unrest on 26 October 2025 followed Tchiroma's claim to have won the presidential election ahead of official results. Estimates of the nationwide death toll from the post-election protests vary considerably by source.

Following the 2025 presidential election, opposition allegations of fraud triggered a series of protests. The unrest underlined persistent contestation over the legitimacy of Cameroon's long-standing presidential rule.

Ethnic violence over water access in northern Cameroon in December 2021 forced more than 30,000 people to cross into Chad. The episode illustrated how resource scarcity is compounding communal tensions in the far north.

National legislative elections took place on 9 February 2020 for the 180-member assembly. They were conducted while separatist violence continued in the Northwest and Southwest regions.

Cameroon joined UN ambassadors of 37 countries in a letter to the Human Rights Council supporting Chinese policy in Xinjiang. The move aligned Cameroon with a bloc of states resisting Western human rights scrutiny.

The government announced in September 2018 that Boko Haram had been defeated within Cameroonian borders. The claim proved premature, with Human Rights Watch reporting renewed attacks killing at least 80 civilians in the Far North from December 2020.

In September 2017 Anglophone separatists began an armed campaign for independence of the English-speaking regions, and on 1 October 2017 separatist leaders declared the independence of Ambazonia, following a year of strikes by lawyers and teachers over marginalisation. The government responded with a military offensive, and the insurgency spread across the Northwest and Southwest, killing thousands and displacing hundreds of thousands, while the redeployment of troops southwards indirectly enabled a resurgence of Boko Haram.

The government blocked internet access in the Anglophone Northwest and Southwest for around three months in 2017. The shutdown affected five million people and damaged the Silicon Mountain technology startup cluster in Buea.

From November 2016 demonstrators in the Northwest and Southwest regions protested against perceived Francophone domination of education and justice. People were killed and hundreds jailed, and more than 450,000 had fled their homes by the article's account.

After the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping, the presidents of Cameroon and Chad announced military action against Boko Haram and sent forces to the Nigerian frontier. Boko Haram retaliated with cross-border raids, killing 84 civilians in December 2014 before suffering a heavy defeat in January 2015.

Kribi Deepwater Port began operations in 2014, supplementing Douala as the country's principal seaport. The facility expanded maritime handling capacity for exports of timber, oil and agricultural goods.

A transport union strike in Douala escalated into violent protests across 31 municipal areas in February 2008. It was the most severe civil unrest the country had seen in fifteen years, exposing deep economic grievances.

The amendment, passed in April 2008, allowed Paul Biya to seek re-election indefinitely. It followed riots in February 2008 that began over rising transport fares and spread into wider protest against the term-limit change, which security forces suppressed with dozens of deaths.

A UN-mediated summit in June 2006 involving Biya, Obasanjo and Kofi Annan produced an agreement for Nigerian withdrawal from Bakassi. The northern portion was handed over in August 2006 and the remainder in 2008, giving Cameroon control of the oil-rich peninsula.

On 18 January 2006 Biya initiated a national anti-corruption campaign directed by the National Anti-Corruption Observatory. Rankings by Transparency International subsequently worsened, suggesting limited practical effect.

The boundary change triggered a local separatist insurgency as many Bakassians refused to accept Cameroonian sovereignty. Most militants laid down arms in November 2009, though some fighting continued for years.

Between 2004 and 2008 public debt fell from more than 60 per cent of GDP to 10 per cent while official reserves quadrupled to over US$3 billion. The improvement followed years of structural adjustment and debt relief, restoring a measure of fiscal capacity.

Fairtrade cotton production was initiated in Cameroon in 2004. It added a certified export line to an agricultural sector employing an estimated 70 per cent of the population.

The International Court of Justice ruled on 10 October 2002 that sovereignty over the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula belonged to Cameroon rather than Nigeria, basing the decision on the Anglo-German Agreement of 1913. Nigeria failed to meet the 2004 deadline to hand over the territory and only formally transferred it in 2008 under a UN-brokered agreement, with implementation causing lasting tension in the area.

Anti-corruption bureaus were created across 29 ministries in 1997, but only a quarter became operational. Transparency International later ranked Cameroon 144th of 176 countries in 2012 and 152nd of 180 in 2018, indicating the measures failed to arrest the problem.

The 1996 constitution created a second chamber of parliament, the 100-seat Senate, alongside the 180-member assembly elected for five-year terms. The reform formalised a bicameral legislature within a strongly presidential system.