THE GEOGRAPHY (Foreign Office UK)
Area: 475,000 sq km (184,000 sq mi)
Population: 15.2 million (2001 est.)
Capital City: Yaounde (population: 1
million). Douala is Cameroon's largest
city (population 1.5 million), its main
seaport, industrial and commercial
centre.
People: About 250 different ethnic
groups
Language(s): French (official), English
(official), Fulfulde, Ewondo and various
other African languages
Religion(s): Christian (50%), Muslim
(20%), indigenous African
Currency: CFA Franc (fixed to Euro)
Major political parties: Cameroon
People's Democratic Movement
(CPDM), Social Democratic Front
(SDF), Union des Populations du
Cameroun (UPC), National Union of
Democracy and Progress (NUDP), the
Cameroon Democratic Union (CDU)
GEOGRAPHY
Cameroon lies in the Gulf of Guinea and
borders Nigeria, Chad, Central African
Republic, Republic of Congo, Gabon, and
Equatorial Guinea. The country is a
mixture of desert plains in the north,
mountains in the central regions and
tropical rainforest in the south and
east.
THE HISTORY (Foreign Office UK)
The earliest inhabitants of Cameroon
were probably the Bakas (Pygmies)
and Bantu speakers in the Cameroonian
highlands. During the late 1770s and
early 1800s, the Fulani, a pastoral
Islamic people of the western Sahel,
conquered most of what is now
northern Cameroon, subjugating or
displacing its largely non-Muslim
inhabitants. Portuguese explorers
began fishing the Cameroon coastline in
the 1470's and later set up sugar
plantations and established the slave
trade. The Dutch took over the slave
trade from the Portuguese in the 17th
century along with Spanish, English,
French, German and US traders.
However, in the mid-19th century the
slave trade was suppressed, with
Christian missions establishing a
presence throughout the country.
The German protectorate of Kamerun
was established in 1884. In 1916, in the
course of the First World War, the
German administration was
overthrown by French, British, and
Belgian troops. In 1919, under League of
Nations Mandates, France was
awarded administration of Eastern
Cameroon, and Britain the Northern
and Southern Cameroons, although
both countries subsumed these regions
into their neighbouring African colonies.
These mandates were converted in
1946 to UN trusteeships, though still
under British and French
administration.
The UN Charter promised
self-determination for all inhabitants of
trust territories and international and
domestic pressure eventually led to a
progression towards independence.
Eastern Cameroon was granted
self-government in 1958 with
AndrT-Marie Mbida as Prime Minister.
He was soon succeeded by Ahmadou
Ahidjou. Eastern Cameroon gained
independence on 1 January 1960, and
Ahidjou was elected as President.
Following a UN administered plebiscite
the Southern Cameroons joined the
Republic in a federal arrangement on 1
October 1961. The largely Muslim
Northern Cameroons opted to join with
Nigeria.
Following federalisation, Ahidjo
increasingly centralised political,
economic and social institutions,
outlawing all political parties but his
own in 1966. From then until 1990, the
Union Nationale Camerounaise -
renamed the Rassemblement
Democratique du Peuple Camerounais
in 1986 (English acronym CPDM) û
represented the one-party state. With
the greater electoral strength of the
Francophone population, the Federal
Republic became a United Republic
after a referendum in May 1972. The
strong executive president, national
assembly, and centralised system of
administration has been a focus of
resentment by many in the Anglophone
minority ever since. The Government
sought to reduce the country's
dependence upon France and adopted a
non-aligned foreign policy. In June 1975
Paul Biya, the former
secretary-general in the president's
office, was appointed Prime Minister.
Ahidjo retired on the grounds of ill
health and handed over power to Prime
Minister Biya in 1982. President Biya's
position was confirmed by elections in
January 1984. Tensions between Ahidjo
and Biya had been rising over the
previous months and in February 1984
Ahidjo was tried in absentia for alleged
complicity in a 1983 coup attempt.
There was a second coup attempt in
April, this time by the elite republican
guard. After intense fighting and many
casualties, a military tribunal was held
and 46 people executed. Although this
coup attempt destabilised the regime,
cabinet reshuffles allowed Biya to
retain control over the political
situation.
In 1990 in response to growing civil
unrest and political organisation under
the unofficial opposition Social
Democratic Front (SDF), Biya
approved the legalisation of a
multi-party system would be adopted.
Legislative elections were held in May
1992 and were contested by 32 political
parties. The first presidential elections
under a multi-party system in October
1992 were fiercely contested and
controversial. President Biya was
re-elected by a narrow margin
(39-36%) over the leading opposition
candidate, John Fru Ndi of the Social
Democratic Front. The elections were
regarded as flawed by international
observers. Legislative elections were
held again in May 1997, with the ruling
CPDM winning 109 of the 180 seats in
the National Assembly. There were
claims of widespread fraud, results
were referred to the Supreme Court
and international election monitors
were again critical. A Commonwealth
Observer Group report made several
recommendations, including the
creation of an independent electoral
commission. A National Elections
Observatory was subsequently
established in 2001, although dependent
on the government for its mandate and
funding.
THE ECONOMY (Foreign Office UK)
Basic Economic Facts
GDP: US$ 8.6bn (2001 est)
GDP per head: US$550 (2001)
Inflation: 4.8% (2002)
Major Industries: Crude Oil, petroleum,
timber, cocoa, coffee, aluminium,
rubber
Major trading partners: France, Italy,
Nigeria, Spain, Germany
Aid & Development: Qualified for HIPC
û yet to reach completion point
Exchange rate: 1 euro = CFA 655.957
(fixed)
Cameroon experienced a boom in the
first half of the 1980s but then oil,
coffee, cocoa and cotton prices fell,
leading to recession. In August 1997 the
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
agreed an Extended Structural
Adjustment Facility (ESAF), with tight
controls due to Cameroon's failure to
meet targets on previous agreements.
The IMF commended Cameroon for its
reform of macroeconomic policy under
the Poverty Reduction and Growth
Facility (PRGF) that ended in June
2000. But they also stressed the need
for further reforms, in particular to
strengthen budgetary performance,
improve transparency and speed up
privatisation in the agro-industrial
sector. The IMF approved a new
three-year PRGF at the end of 2000
following the Government of
Cameroon's adherence to the economic
programme endorsed by the
International Financial Institutions.
On 10 October 2000 Cameroon became
eligible for debt relief under the
Heavily Indebted Poor countries
Initiative (HIPC). An IMF/World Bank
mission visited Cameroon in late
October 2001 to assess progress on
poverty alleviation, and to discuss the
adoption of the second year of the
economic reform programme.
Cameroon is due to reach HIPC
completion point in 2003 or 2004 but
must reach the completion point
triggers set by the IMF, including
governance reform and the drafting of
a coherent Poverty Reduction Strategy
Paper.
Trade Partners UK Country Profile:
Cameroon
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Cameroon's Relations with Neighbours
Nigeria and Cameroon have a
long-running dispute over their
border, including the oil-rich Bakassi
Peninsula. There were brief armed
clashes in the 1990s. The Nigerian and
Cameroonian Foreign Ministers met in
Togo in February 1996 and issued a
statement saying that hostilities would
cease. The case was referred to the
International Court of Justice (ICJ)
who ruled on the disputed territory on
10 October 2002. The ruling, largely in
Cameroon's favour, was initially
rejected by Nigeria. But with the
mediation of the UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan, the ruling has been
referred to a Mixed Commission of the
two countries, which is taking the issue
forward.
Cameroon's Relations with the
International Community
Cameroon joined the Commonwealth in
November 1995 at the Commonwealth
Heads of Government Meeting in
Auckland. As a member of the
Commonwealth, the Government of
Cameroon has committed itself to
adhering to the Harare Declaration
Principles on Human Rights and Good
Governance. International concern with
Cameroon focuses on the need for
reform in these areas. The
Commonwealth has actively engaged
with Cameroon since it joined in 1995,
and has looked at particular ways in
which it can help Cameroon to uphold
these Commonwealth principles. These
include recommendations for the
creation of an independent electoral
commission, made after
Commonwealth observers attended the
1997 legislative elections. The
Commonwealth also sent election
observers to monitor the elections in
June and the Secretary-General
recently appointed a special
representative û the Canadian former
Foreign Minister û Christine Stewart,
to support Cameroon's efforts to meet
the requirements of Commonwealth
membership. The UK has worked
alongside the Secretariat and, in an
attempt to complement their efforts,
provided funding to help strengthen the
role of the National Elections
Observatory.
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