Cameroon is located at the "Hinge of Africa" bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the West, Nigeria to North, Chad and the Central African Republic to the East and the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to the South. The climate varies from tropical on the coast to semi-arid and hot in the north.

The population is estimated at 18 million. English and French are both official languages although over 24 native dialects are also widespread.

Geology

Cameroon hosts two major groups of Precambrian rocks with the northern extension of the Archaean Congo craton underlying the south of the country and the Neoproterozoic Pan-African mobile belt underlying the central and northern parts. These Precambrian rocks are separated by the Tertiary to Recent volcanics of the Cameroon Volcanic Line.

The Archaean Congo craton is comprised of granite-gneissic and metasedimentary rocks, which are host to metadiorites, migmatites, quartites and ampibolitic greenstone belts. Typically these rocks have one dominant foliation, however in place this foliation is cross cut by features formed under a brittle-ductile structural regime.

The Neoproterozoic Pan-African mobile belt comprises granitic intrusions into metasediments exhibiting distinct aureoles, and sheared/foliated granitoid bodies which have under gone hydrothermal alteration. The Pan-African belt is transected by a series of en echelon strike-slip faults which form part of the Central African Shear Zone (CASZ).

The country is also host to significant petroleum reserves located offshore in the Rio del Rey Basin, offshore and onshore in the Douala and Kribi-Camp Basins, and onshore in the Logone-Birni Basin in the northern part of the country.

History

In mid 1884, most of modern day Cameroon and parts of neighbouring countries were claimed as a German colony. During World War I, the British invaded Cameroon and overthrew the Germans by 1916. The country was then divided with the UK claiming the northern area bordering Nigeria and France claiming the remainder of the country.

In 1960, following five years of armed struggle, French Cameroon achieved independence as the Republic of Cameroon. A year later, the Muslim-dominated northern two-thirds of British Cameroon voted to join Nigeria and the predominantly Christian southern third voted to join with the Republic of Cameroon to form the Federal Republic of Cameroon.

Ahmadou Ahidjo became the first president of the Federal Republic of Cameroon in 1961. After outlawing opposition political parties in 1966 and replacing the constitution in 1972, he finally resigned as president in 1982. Despite his authoritarian rule, Cameroon enjoyed relative political stability and economic growth.

Ahidjo was succeeded by Paul Biya, who won subsequent single-candidate elections in 1983 and 1984 when the country was again named the Republic of Cameroon and survived a coup attempt in 1984. Biya has remained in power since with his Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party winning multiparty elections in 1992, 1997 and 2004.

Economy

Following independence, Cameroon remained one of the most prosperous countries in Africa until the mid-1980s when the fall in commodity prices hit the country's major exports of petroleum, cocoa, coffee and cotton. This decline in exports combined with economic mismanagement led to a fall of over 60% in real per capita GDP between 1986 and 1994. Oil exports have been increasing in recent years and the country continues to have strong agricultural production. While still undeveloped, the country has significant metal and mineral potential although only a small number of companies are currently operating.