Cameroon

Cameroon A heterogeneous country, separating central and western Africa, which comprises over 200 ethnic groups. It came under German influence in 1884, and was confirmed as a German colony in 1911. It was occupied by British and French troops in 1916, and in 1919 was divided into a smaller, western part administered by the British, and an eastern part administered by the French, both as League of Nations Mandates. Britain integrated the western part into its colony of Nigeria, while France tried to transform the east into a separate colony. In 1946, the UN established both parts as trust territories and ordered France and Britain to prepare them for independence. This was granted to the east on 1 January 1960, and the west was reunited with it on 1 October 1961, after a referendum.

Despite independence, President Ahidjo continued to rely on French military assistance to combat the militant rebels of the Union des Populations du Cameroun (Union of the Populations of Cameroon). He created a one-party state in 1972, and abolished the federal structure which had given each part of the country its separate parliament. The unitary state led to discrimination against the English-speaking minority. While he secured his regime with dictatorial powers, Ahidjo's rule was characterized by relative stability and prosperity, facilitated by revenues from oil exports, and a diverse agricultural base which gave it relative independence from food imports.

Ahidjo was succeeded by Byia, under whose government falls in the prices of its most important export goods (oil, coffee, cocoa) rendered the government unable to pay for its inflated public sector, and obliged it to take up a large foreign debt. It became dependent upon the intervention of the IMF, which forced the state to privatize many of its companies, to freeze public-sector pay, and to reduce the number of state employees. A consequent wave of public protests was met by political liberalization. In elections which were boycotted by some of the opposition parties, Biya was re-elected in 1992. In that year, his Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camérounais (RDPC, Democratic Union of the People of Cameroon) won 88 out of 180 seats in Parliament. In 1997 the RDPC entered a coalition with the other major French-speaking party, the Union Nationale pour la Démocratie et le Progrès. Under Biya's rule, Cameroon engaged in a bitter border dispute with its neighbour, Nigeria. It continued to be unable to overcome its position as one of the world's poorest countries, with a GDP of $600 per head in 2001, and with one of the highest incidences of corruption.