Facts about Cameroon

Cameroon, officially Republic of Cameroon, French République du Cameroun, is a country situated at the junction of western and central Africa. Triangular in shape, it is bordered by Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, as well as the Atlantic Ocean. . Its ethnically diverse population is among the most diverse in western Africa. English and French are the official languages, but the country is home to over 200 different local languages.

Cameroon is often referred to as “Little Africa", due to its diverse nature and culture. The landscape varies from beaches, mountains and rainforests in the south, to savannahs and deserts in the north. The highest peak is Mount Cameroon in the southwest, raging 4,095 meters above sea level. Major exports include crude oil, cocoa, coffee, cotton, and timber. Other exports include oil-palm products, tea, rubber, peanuts, bananas, and fresh vegetables, as well as factory products such as aluminium, textiles, plastics, beverages, and confectionery. The country is well known for its music, particularly makossa and bikutsi, and for its successful national football team.

Education

About three-fourths of all children of primary-school age are enrolled either in public or in Christian missionary schools. This attendance rate is not constant throughout the country, however, because the availability of school facilities varies regionally. Virtually all children in the south may attend school, but adequate facilities exist for only about two-fifths of the children in the northern region.

There are general-education secondary schools, vocational schools, and teacher-training schools. Manual labor is compulsory in secondary and technical schools as a means of encouraging graduates to take up farming instead of seeking white-collar jobs in the cities. The University of Yaoundé was established in 1962 and added four regional campuses in the early 1980s.

Health and welfare

Malaria is widespread except in the mountainous regions, where respiratory and pulmonary diseases and dysentery are common. There are also incidences of leprosy and schistosomiasis, as well as syphilis, sleeping sickness, and rheumatism. The infant mortality rate, at about 100 per 1,000 live births, remains high by world standards but is nonetheless comparatively low for western Africa.

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