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INTRODUCTION
Originally part of the German colony in West Africa, Cameroon became a republic in 1960. The country is in the shape of an elongated triangle and forms a bridge between West Africa and Central Africa.
Location of Cameroon
Cameroon is bound on the north by Lake Chad; on the east by Chad and the Central African Republic; on the south by the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea; and on the west by the Bight of Biafra (a part of the Atlantic Ocean) and Nigeria.
Flora And Fauna of Cameroon
Cameroon is home to rain forests that contain a number of different kinds of trees, including oil palms, bamboo palms, mahogany, teak, ebony, and rubber. Variety of wildlife can be found which includes monkeys, chimpanzees, gorillas, antelope, lions, and elephants, as well as numerous species of birds, squirrels, frogs, and snakes.
Physical Map of Cameroon
Cameroon can be divided into four distinct
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topographical regions - the south which is a coastal plain having dense equatorial rain forests; the center, the Adamawa Plateau, consisting of a region with elevations reaching about 4,500 ft above sea level; the far north comprising of the savanna which gradually slopes into the marshland surrounding Lake Chad; and the west consisting of high, forested mountains of volcanic origin, where the highest peak in western Africa measuring 13,435 ft is situated. The principal rivers of Cameroon include the Sanaga and Nyong rivers which flow west to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Mbéré and Logone rivers that flow north from the central plateau into Lake Chad.
Climate of Cameroon
Cameroon has a tropical climate - humid in the south but increasingly dry towards the north. Along the coast, the average annual rainfall is about 4,060 mm while on the slopes of Cameroon Mountain and other peaks of the west, rainfall is almost constant. In the semiarid northwest, annual rainfall measures
about 380 mm. A dry season in the north lasts from October to April. The average temperature in the south is 25°C, on the plateau it is 21°C, and in the north it is 32°C.
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