Geography of Cameroon

Area: 475,442 sq km

Coastline: 402km

Capital: Yaoundé (constitutional); Douala (economic)

Cameroon is called Cameroun in French, Kamerun in German, Camarões in Portuguese, and Cameroon in English. The country’s name derives from camarões, meaning ‘shrimps’, so called by the 15th-century Portuguese explorer Fernando Po who named the River Wouri Rio dos Camarões (‘shrimp river’), after the many shrimps. Cameroon in central Africa is bounded clockwise (from the west) by the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

The country comprises ten provinces: Adamaoua, Centre, Coastal, East, Far North, North, North-West, South, South-West and West.