Cameroon covers 475,442 sqkm and has borders with Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Its coast is adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea.

The Portuguese were the first to arrive on the shores of Cameroon in the 1500s and they established sugar plantations and began to trade slaves from the region. The Dutch took over the slave trade in the 1600s and in 1884 the region became a protectorate of Germany.

After World War I, the League of Nations divided Cameroon between the French and British, with most of the territory going to the French.

In 1955, the Union of Peoples of Cameroon, formed mainly of people of the Bamileke and Bassa ethnic groups, began an independence movement within French Cameroon. It turned into a bloody conflict and death toll estimates range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

French Cameroon gained independence in 1960, and the country took on its current boundaries when the mostly Christian region of British Cameroon voted to join the territory rather than become part of Nigeria.

Ahmadou Ahidjo was the first president of Cameroon and was re-elected in 1982. He had to resign due to health reasons, and ceded power to his constitutional successor, Paul Biya, who was prime minister at the time.

He later regretted his decision but failed to regain power in an attempted coup in 1984. Biya has remained in power since that time.

His presidency has been marked by soaring corruption, according to international corruption watchdogs, and in 1998 the country was ranked the most corrupt in the world by the NGO Transparency International.

The country has also encountered a number of environmental problems. In 1986, a volcanic lake that discharged poisonous gases killed 1,700 people. In 2001, the organisation Global Forest Watch reported that 80 percent of Cameroon’s forests were allocated for logging. Most recently in January 2007, there was an oil leak from a pipeline linking Chad and Cameroon. The construction of the pipeline has been criticised by several environmental and human rights groups.

Peace and security

Cameroon is considered a haven of peace in a region that has often been beset by violence and unrest. Conflict in neighbouring Central African Republic and a rise in banditry there has led to the movement of populations across the border but, for the most part, violence has not spilled over into Cameroon.

Cameroon had an ongoing border dispute with Nigeria over the Bakassi peninsula, considered potentially rich in oil. Following confrontations at the border that nearly brought the two countries to war, and after Nigeria attempted to fully occupy the territory, Cameroon asked the International Court of Justice to determine territorial rights in 1994. The ICJ made its ruling in 2002 in favour of Cameroon, and in August 2006 Nigerian troops left the area. The inhabitants of the peninsula, however, consider themselves to be Nigerian and a few days before the handover, a group tried to declare the region independent and said they were worried about Cameroonian occupation of the area. The Nigeria-Cameroon Mixed Commission has demarcated 500km of border territory, but this leaves a further 1,000km to be settled.

Cameroon also has a dispute with Equatorial Guinea over an island at the opening of the River Ntem. The dispute started after oil exploration work was carried out in the region.

Cameroon also has some internal problems. A secessionist group has formed in the two English-speaking provinces of the country. The Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC) emerged in the 1990s and has been declared illegal by the government. Although the movement has mainly espoused non-violence, there have been several arrests of members, most recently at a press conference in January 2007 held by the SCNC. The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation reported that all 300 attendees were detained and that excessive force was used by armed officers.

There have also been several media reports of incidents of mob justice, which the Peace and Conflict Monitor said was on the rise. Mob justice is described by the Peace and Conflict Monitor as the infliction of a penalty on an alleged criminal by a group without proving guilt. The alleged perpetrator is usually subjected to stoning, burning or lynching. Most cases occurred following an incident of theft. The rise in this form of violence is attributed to inefficiencies of the judiciary.

IDPs/Refugees

Conflicts in surrounding countries have caused a surge of refugees to enter Cameroon and could potentially force more into the country.

According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Cameroon is expected to host approximately 48,500 refugees and 6,000 asylum-seekers in 2007.

In November 2006, the UN reported that close to 30,000 people from the Central African Republic (CAR) had sought refuge in Cameroon. Most are part of the Mbororo ethnic group, who live close to the Cameroonian border. They started crossing into Cameroon in April 2005 to flee harassment and child abductions. In recent months, the flow has accelerated due to attacks by former rebels. Most of the refugees have settled in the east and Adamaoua region in the north of Cameroon.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) reported that if the situations in Sudan and Chad worsen, up to 300,000 Chadians could potentially flee the capital N’Djamena and cross into Cameroon. It added that 2,500 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo who are currently in the Republic of Congo could make their way to Cameroon, since it is perceived to have better living conditions.

The UNHCR reported that the repatriation of 10,000 Nigerian refugees was completed in 2006 following the signing of a tripartite agreement in 2005 between the UNHCR and the governments of Cameroon and Nigeria. It will assist 2,800 Nigerians that have chosen to stay in Cameroon to integrate.

It will also help the government establish a National Eligibility Committee and try to reduce the backlog of asylum claims that number close to 6,000.

Democracy and governance

Cameroon’s constitution provides for a strong presidency. The president does not need National Assembly approval to name and dismiss cabinet members, judges, generals, state governors, prefects and heads of state-controlled firms. A country assessment by Country Information and Policy Unit of the British Home Office noted that the president also has exclusive power to approve or veto regulations, declare states of emergency and can appropriate and spend profits of state-owned firms.

President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982. The constitution was amended in 1990 to allow for the formation of opposition parties and the first multi-party elections were held in 1992. These elections and subsequent ones in 1997 were marred by irregularities. In 2000, the government established the National Elections Observatory, which improved electoral procedure slightly, but international observers still noted irregularities in the 2000 and 2004 elections, and the country still does not have an independent electoral commission. The next presidential elections are scheduled for 2011.

Cameroon is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world by the NGO Transparency International, which monitors corruption worldwide. A survey conducted by the group in 2003 found that 50 percent of Cameroonians admitted to paying a bribe, the highest number in the world.

The NGO Freedom House reported in March 2005 that Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni uncovered widespread corruption in the Ministry of Finance, accusing 500 officials of awarding themselves extra money or claiming salaries of “ghost” employees.

Analysts say that worsening corruption is due to poor pay of government workers.

Media

The state publishes the daily newspaper Cameroon Tribune, and runs a TV network and radio station. After the liberalisation of the media in 2000, a handful of private newspapers appeared and private broadcasters launched radio and TV stations.

According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), it is still dangerous to report on subjects that are considered sensitive by the government, such as the army, the secessionist movement in the English-speaking region of Cameroon and corruption.

Journalists can be arrested and imprisoned for libel, and in its 2007 Annual Report RWB made recommendations for Cameroon to amend its press laws and its mechanisms for regulating the media.

There were also incidents of attacks on journalists, including the beating of a female radio personality and the detention of an editor by the military.

Economy

Cameroon’s economy is mainly agricultural and exports include coffee, cocoa, petroleum and timber. In the 1980s, it had one of the strongest economies in Africa, but a drop in world market prices for its main exports created an economic downturn and the World Bank reported that this had translated into a 60 percent decline in foreign trade.

This economic crisis led to an accumulation of public debt, the deterioration of living standards and a rise in poverty. Although the economy has recovered, social indicators have been slow to climb, and 40 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line.

According to the World Bank, economic growth in the non-oil sector has remained strong, averaging 4.9 percent per year and inflation has remained stable.

In 2003, Cameroon adopted a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy and in 2006 reached the completion point under the enhanced Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, which made Cameroon eligible to receive debt relief worth over US$1 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

Population

Cameroon has a population of 16 million and the growth rate is 1.6 percent. On average, women give birth to 4.6 children.

The country has an estimated 250 ethnic groups that can be divided into broad regional-cultural groups. In the south of the country, there are the Bantu-speaking groups, which include the Fang, Duala, Basa, and Pygmies, known officially as Bakas. In the plateaus of the west and northwest, are groups that speak semi-Bantu languages and are sometimes referred to as highlanders or grassfielders. The north is inhabited by mainly Sudanic-speaking Muslim people. The biggest ethnic group represented there are the Fulani.

The two English administrative regions of Cameroon are the North-West and South-West provinces.

Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam and traditional beliefs are each practiced by about a quarter of the population.

Development indicators

Cameroon is ranked 144 out of 177 countries on the UN Development Programme (UNDP) Human Development Index.

According to the UNDP’s Human Development Report, life expectancy at birth in Cameroon is 45.7 years and the probability of not surviving past the age of 40 is 43.9 percent.

The country’s literacy rate stands at 67.9 percent and the combined primary, secondary and tertiary enrolment ratio is 62.3 percent.

Access to an improved water source is limited to 34 percent of the population and 18 percent of children under five are underweight.

The World Bank noted that income inequities persist across the country. It found that four out of 10 households where the head of family has no education live in poverty compared to 0.5 out of 10 households where the head of family is college-educated. The incidence of poverty is highest for households headed by farmers and agricultural wage earners, and households in the rural parts of West Province are twice as likely to be poor than households in urban areas.

Education

In the late 1980’s, Cameroon nearly attained universal primary education, with a gross enrollment rate of 95.6 percent. Rates have dropped considerably since that time.

Figures from Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics indicate that currently there are 58 percent of girls enrolled in primary school and 83 percent of boys.

Girls have fewer opportunities to attend school and are more likely to drop out. The Equal Rights and Opportunity Forum, an NGO based in Cameroon, said in a 2005 report that out of 1.7 million children not attending school, 1.3 million were girls and that half of girls aged 6-11 did not attend school.

Figures also show that 60 percent of boys complete primary school compared to only 37 percent for girls.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports that there are regional disparities and that enrolment rates for girls are particularly low in the north of the country.

According to UNICEF, there are several reasons why girls do not attend school or are forced to drop out. Girls are often kept at home to do domestic chores or to prepare for early marriage. Due to the direct and indirect costs of schooling, parents will choose to send boys to school rather than girls if they can only afford to send one child to school. Another problem is that children need a birth certificate to be eligible to take the end of primary school exam, and it is usually girls who do not get registered at birth.

Cameroon’s school system also suffers from a lack of resources. A study by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2004 found that elementary schools only had sufficient seats for 1.8 million students, even though 2.9 million students attended school. The study also revealed that the northern provinces were neglected. This was reflected in the fact that teachers working in the three provinces of that region represented only 5.7 percent of all teachers working throughout the 10 provinces in the country.

Enrolment rates drop considerably at the secondary level for both boys and girls. According to UNICEF, the gross enrolment rate is 51 percent for boys and 36 percent for girls.

UNICEF also registers the adult literacy rate at 77 percent for men and 60 percent for women.

Children

Child labour is common in Cameroon, and the sub-regional director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) described the situation as alarming at a 2006 press conference. She added that children were being used to work in agriculture, businesses, prostitution and as domestic servants.

According to UNICEF, 54 percent of children are engaged in some form of labour. The International Bureau of Labour Affairs (ILAB) reported that only 5 percent of children aged 5-14 worked for wages. It also reported that 7percent of working children in the main cities Yaoundé, Douala and Bamenda were under 12 and that 60 percent had dropped out of school.

The ILO also released a report in 2002 that stated that children were being used for labour on cocoa plantations in Cameroon and were frequently exposed to hazardous conditions, including having to use machetes or apply pesticides. Through the West Africa Cocoa/Commercial Agricultural Project run in partnership with the ILO, over 800 children have been taken off cocoa farms and reintegrated into society.

Cameroon is also a source, transit and destination point for child trafficking. In 2003, the BBC reported on an international child trafficking ring whereby Cameroonian children said to be free of AIDS were sold by local chiefs to become brides. Many ended up working in brothels in the UK.

The ILAB said girls were trafficked from northern provinces to work in urban areas, children were trafficked into Cameroon from Benin and Nigeria, and that the country served as a transit route for children being trafficked between Nigeria and Gabon. It also reported that there were credible reports of child slavery in Rev Bouba Division in the North Province, particularly involving girls.

Girls are also forced into child marriages, sometimes when they are as young as 12. According to UNICEF, 47 percent of girls in Cameroon were married before the age of 18. The practice is particularly prevalent in the northern region.

Breast-ironing is practiced on some young girls in Cameroon, and it involves applying hot objects on developing breasts to flatten them and prevent them from growing. The purpose is to lessen the girl’s sexual attractiveness so that she will not engage in pre-marital sex. A survey conducted by the German development agency GTZ in Cameroon in 2006 found that one in four girls goes through the process and that an estimated four million women had been subjected to the procedure.

Health indicators for children have been on the decline. The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) reported that infant mortality was high at 93 deaths for every 1,000 live births and that the under-five mortality rate had increased from 142 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 159 in 2005.

Health

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are approximately 19 doctors for every 100,000 people in Cameroon. Although low, this number is higher than in most West African countries.

The maternal mortality rate is high at 730 deaths for every 100,000 live births and the WHO estimates that 61.8 percent of births are assisted by a skilled attendant.

Malaria is endemic in Cameroon, and according to the Global Fund for the Fight Against AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, this disease is the primary cause of morbidity and mortality in the country. The Global Fund reports that there are over two million cases of malaria seen in health centres each year and that the illness has a considerable socio-economic impact on the country. Malaria accounts for 40 to 45 percent of doctors’ visits, 50 percent of morbidity and 40 percent of deaths in children under five, 30 to 40 percent of deaths in health institutions, 26 percent of sick leave absences and consumes 40 percent of the health budget for a household, according to the Global Fund. UNICEF says only one percent of children under five sleeps under a treated mosquito net.

The incidence of tuberculosis is also high in the country. According to the WHO, there are 179 cases for every 100,000 people. Currently, nine out of 10 provinces are covered by the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, which is run through the Ministry of Health in conjunction with several international partners.

The programme’s overall goal is to detect at least 70 percent of infectious cases and cure a minimum of 85 percent of detected cases, as per recommendations by the WHO. In partnership with the Global Fund, it plans to extend the implementation of tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment centres from 133 to 199 and double the number of detected cases by 2008.

In March 2006, cases of bird flu were discovered in Cameroon.

HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries/Countries/cameroon.asp prevalence rate in Cameroon is 5.4 percent, according to the UN Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) http://www.unaids.org/en/Regions_Countries/Countries/cameroon.asp, one of the highest in West Africa.

According to UNAIDS, there are 510,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the country.

Prevalence rates vary from region to region, with the highest rates being registered in the North-West and East provinces. According to WHO, young people are most affected, with one-third of those infected being in the 15 to 49 age range. The WHO also reports that women are more vulnerable and that there are three women infected for every two men. The National AIDS Control Committee has made it a priority in its strategic plan for 2006-2010 to target young women in particular, and young people in general.

The most vulnerable groups include sex workers, truck drivers, mobile populations and military personnel.

UNAIDS estimates that 43,000 children under 14 are infected with HIV/AIDS and that 240,000 children under 17 have been orphaned by the disease.

At the end of 2004, WHO and UNAIDS estimated that the number of people needing anti-retroviral treatment in Cameroon was 95,000. By March 2005, 15,000 were receiving ARVs, and provisions have been made to reach 36,000 patients by 2008.

The government has committed itself to extending treatment by creating approved treatment centres across the country and reducing the cost of treatment and laboratory follow-up through subsidies. Voluntary testing and counselling services have been integrated in hospitals in all 10 provinces and there are more than 160 centres that offer services for prevention of mother-to-child transmissions.

Food security

Cameroon’s northern provinces occasionally experience food insecurity. In 2005, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported that nearly 250,000 people in the region faced serious food shortages due to poor rains that led to a drop in cereal production by 200,000 metric tonnes. Cereal prices also quadrupled during the same period.

A joint survey by UNICEF and the Ministry of Health found that 39 percent of women in the northern provinces suffer from malnutrition, and acute malnutrition affects 30 percent of children between six months and five years of age.

According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), 26 percent of the population in Cameroon is undernourished, and UNICEF reports that 32 percent of children under five suffer from severe to moderate stunting.

The WFP reports that the agricultural and nutritional situation in the three provinces in the north is critical. Interventions target women as they are the ones providing the nutritional needs of their families through subsistence farming.

In 2005, local authorities agreed to the Douala Declaration, a commitment to play a more active role in combating food insecurity and improving the efficiency of activities related to food supply and distribution in their respective regions.

Gender issues

The UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) reported in 2006 that Cameroon had made progress in drafting a family code that will protect women’s rights but that the process had stalled due to changes in government.

UNIFEM noted that women faced domestic violence and sexual abuse and the Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy, a local human rights group, said there was a high tolerance of violence against women.

A US State Department report on human rights found that a large number of newspaper articles on violence against women indicated that the problem was widespread. It said there were no specific laws prohibiting domestic violence and that spousal abuse was not grounds for divorce.

Although the constitution provides for equal rights for men and women, the status of women remains below that of men. By law, men can oppose their wife’s right to work in the interest of the household and can end his wife’s employment.

Traditional and customary laws continue to affect women’s rights and often take precedence over civil laws protecting women. In many regions a woman is considered the property of her husband, and usually a widow is forbidden from inheriting her husband’s property. In many cases, widows are forced to marry a brother of her deceased husband.

Rape is illegal by law and the US State Department reported that there have been several convictions. Newspaper coverage suggested that rape was becoming increasingly frequent in the cities of Douala and Yaoundé. According to one report, the courts in Douala heard up to 40 cases per month.

Excision (female genital mutilation/cutting) is not common but is practiced in some parts of the Far North, the South-West and East provinces. There is no law against excision and according to UNICEF, one to two percent of women have undergone the procedure.

At the political level, the UNFPA reports that most recent data show that 8.9 percent of seats in parliament are held by women, down from 14 percent in 1990.

Human rights

Amnesty International (AI) reported in 2006 that suspects detained in police custody were frequently subjected to torture and ill-treatment. In some cases, this resulted in death. Incidents, however, were rarely investigated and impunity amongst the police and military led to excessive use of force.

AI also reported that there is a high mortality rate in prisons due to poor conditions that include overcrowding, medical neglect and inadequate food.

The government imprisoned several members of a separatist group from the English-speaking provinces of the country after what AI described as an unfair trial. The political prisoners were denied appeals for over five years, after which they had their sentences reduced. AI also noted that human rights activists are frequently targets of harassment and the organisation has been denied access to Cameroon for the past 10 years.

Homosexuality is illegal in Cameroon and AI expressed concern over the arrest of a group of men accused of homosexuality. It also denounced a newspaper that printed a list of supposedly homosexual men.

Humanitarian needs

According to the UNDP in Cameroon, 85 percent of those living in poverty are in rural areas. Women are particularly affected by poverty and have more nutritional problems, a heavier workload, a lack of education and limited access to health services.

The Far North province, which is the most populated in the country, is also one of the most neglected and is deficient in several areas. Child mortality in this region is 201 deaths for every 1,000 live births compared to 159 for the rest of the country, and it is the region with the lowest vaccination coverage. Women also receive the least amount of pre-natal care in this province and malnutrition is pervasive.

CREDIT : IRIN – United Nations Office – Humanitarian Country Profile