Timeline Cameroon
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Gateway: http://www.cameroon.net/
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Country_Specific/Cameroon.html
Map: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/CIA_Maps/Cameroon_19844.gif
Fact Sheet: http://travel.state.gov/cameroon.html
Factbook: http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/cm.html
Homepage: http://www.compufix.demon.co.uk/camweb/
Hanson/Cooke: http://www.tcol.co.uk/camer/cameroo.htm
History: http://www.tcol.co.uk/camer/cam2.htm#history
Mambila: http://rsl.ox.ac.uk/isca/meek/meekp532.html
West African coast nation, southeast of Nigeria.
(WSJ, 1/2/98, p.8)
1300-1400 In Cameroon the kingdom of
Foumban began in the 14th century.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.A1)
1885 May 19, German chancellor
Bismarck took possession of Cameroon & Togoland.
(MC, 5/19/02)
1915 Jun 11, British troops took
Cameroon in Africa.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1929 Brancis Bebey (d.2001),
composer, writer and performer, was born. He studied in the US and
France and worked for UNESCO. His work included the 1975 book ”African
Music: A People’s Art,” and the novel “The Ashanti Doll” (1977), which
was set in Ghana.
(SFC, 6/8/01, p.D5)
1960 Jan 1, French Cameroon gained
independence.
(PC, 1992, p.973)(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1960 Apr 10, In the 1st Cameroon
national election the Cameroun Union Party, led by premier Ahmadou
Ahidjo, won 60 of 100 assembly seats.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1961 Feb 11-12, A UN plebiscite
resulted in the union of the southern part of British Cameroon with the
Republic of Cameroun.
(EWH, 1st ed., p.1173)
1962 Mar 13, John F. Kennedy met
Cameroon President Ahmadou Ahidjo.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1963 The EU signed a trade deal in
Yaounde, Cameroon, to keep markets open to former European colonies in
Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Islands (ACP).
(Econ, 5/28/05, p.78)
1970 The infant gorilla later
named King was captured about this time in Cameroon and shipped to the
US where he performed in Las Vegas and traveled with a circus
until age 10. He spent his next 20 years at Monkey Jungle in Dade
County, Fla.
(SFC, 6/12/99, p.A8)
1984 In Cameroon Lake Monoun
exploded spewing out carbon dioxide gas that asphyxiated 37 people in a
nearby villages. An int’l. team of scientists began venting the lake in
2003.
(AP, 2/15/03)
1986 Aug 21, In Cameroon 1,746
people died when toxic gas, an invisible bubble of CO2, erupted [seeped
out] from a volcano under Lake Nyos. Venting of the lake began in 2001.
(AP, 8/21/97)(WSJ, 11/17/97, p.B1)(SFC, 8/14/99,
p.A6)(SC, 8/21/02)(AP, 2/15/03)
1989 In Cameroon representatives
of King Seidou Njimoluh Njoya, the 18th monarch of the kingdom of
Foumban, announced that Joseph Ngoupou (39) would succeed his father as
chief of the village of Koupa Ngagnou. Mr. Ngoupou lived in Maryland
and worked there as an engineer.
(WSJ, 9/23/06, p.A1)
1990 In Cameroon multi-party
politics was allowed for the first time.
(Econ, 3/1/08, p.50)
1992 The re-election of Cameroon
Pres. Paul Biya was boycotted by the opposition and dismissed as bogus
by int’l. observers.
(WSJ, 12/10/96, p.A22)
1994 Feb, Nigerian and Cameroon
forces clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and oil-rich Gulf
of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1995 Dec, A jetliner crashed in
Douala, the largest city of Cameroon, and killed at least 72 of the 78
onboard the Boeing 737 on a flight from Benin.
(WSJ, 12/5/95, p.A-1)
1995 Commonwealth members admitted
Mozambique and Cameroon.
(Econ, 11/24/07, p.64)
1996 May 4, Nigerian and Cameroon
forces again clashed over the Bakassi region on the fishing and
oil-rich Gulf of Guinea.
(SFC, 5/7/96, p.A-10)
1997 Nov 14, Cameroon Pres. Paul
Biya launched a campaign to fight millions of locusts in the northern
part of the country where crops were already decimated by drought,
animal and birds.
(SFC,11/15/97, p.A20)
1997 The Cameroon film Clandestine
(Clando) was made by Jean-Marie Teno.
(SFEM, 9/28/97, p.17)
1997 Dec 21, In Yaounde, Cameroon,
Pius Njawe, the publisher of the leading opposition newspaper Le
Meesager, ran a story that Pres. Paul Biya suffered a heart attack. On
Dec 29 Njawe was reported to have been imprisoned for the story.
(SFC,12/30/97, p.B2)
1998 Feb 14, A train hauling oil
tanker cars derailed and collided with an oncoming train outside
Yaounde. It exploded and killed up to 100 people.
(SFEC, 2/15/98, p.A24)
1998 Sep 2, A new strain of HIV-1
was reported by French researchers from a Cameroon woman who died if
AIDS in 1995.
(SFC, 9/1/98, p.A4)
1998 Sep 23, Transparency Int’l,
an int’l. good-government advocacy group, said that Cameroon is viewed
as the most corrupt of the 85 countries rated.
(WSJ, 9/23/98, p.B17)
1999 Mar 28, A volcanic eruption
caused violent quakes and sent lava down the slopes of Mount Cameroon.
No casualties were reported.
(SFC, 3/30/99, p.F8)(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A6)
1999 Apr 19, One of the annual
Goldman Environmental Prizes went to: Samuel Nguiffo, a Cameroon
lawyer, for his work in protecting rain forests and opposition to the
slaughter of chimpanzees and other rare wildlife.
(SFC, 4/19/99, p.A2)
2000 Jun 6, The World Bank
approved a $3.7 billion oil well and pipeline project led by Exxon and
Mobile to link oil fields in Chad across 663 miles to the Atlantic
coast of Cameroon.
(SFC, 6/7/00, p.A12)
2002 Jun 30, Cameroon held
parliamentary and municipal elections, one week after voting was called
off because of a lack of ballot papers.
(AP, 6/30/02)
2001 May, A plague of caterpillars
was devastating crops in the eastern and southern provinces of Cameroon.
(SFC, 5/19/01, p.C9)
2002 Jun 23, Cameroon's government
halted parliamentary and municipal elections shortly after they began
Sunday, citing logistical problems.
(AP, 6/23/02)
2002 Oct 10, The United Nations'
highest judicial body ruled in favor of Cameroon in a border dispute
with Nigeria, giving it possession of an oil-rich peninsula in the Gulf
of Guinea.
(AP, 10/12/02)
2002 Oct 23, The Nigerian
government said it rejects a World Court ruling that granted possession
of a disputed oil-rich peninsula to neighboring Cameroon.
(AP, 10/23/02)
2002-2004 The Nigerian and Cameroon nations spent two
years exchanging small areas of territory along their land border north
of Bakassi until September 2004 when the peninsula itself was first due
to change hands. Nigeria cited "technical difficulties" for missing
that deadline, and after two years of stalemate agreed at a meeting in
the United Nations on June 12, 2006, to pull out within 60 days.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2003 Jan 26, In Cameroon an
overcrowded bus swerved into oncoming traffic on the nation's main
highway, sparking a five-car pileup that killed at least 70.
(AP, 1/28/03)
2003 Apr 19, Cameroon was reported
to have banned gorilla, chimpanzee and elephant meat from its
restaurants with prison terms and fines up to $16,000 for violations.
Extermination of the animals in a decade was feared if hunting was not
stopped.
(SFC, 4/19/03, p.B6)
2003 Jul 15, Chad began pumping
oil to Cameroon, part of a project to help alleviate crushing poverty
in the two countries. The 4.2 billion project was funded by the World
Bank on the condition that the oil money be used for development. Pres.
Idris Deby later diverted the money to the general budget and for
weapons.
(AP, 7/16/03)(SFC, 12/21/07, p.A31)
2003 Jul 21, In southwest Cameroon
water-logged hillsides gave way after a week of heavy rain, killing at
least 21 people.
(AP, 7/24/03)
2003 Oct 3, The first tanker set
off the Cameroon port of Kribi with crude oil from a massive $3.7
billion, 665-mile pipeline from the landlocked nation of Chad.
(AP, 10/6/03)
2004 Jun 12, Central African
leaders of Chad and Cameroon officially opened the taps on one of the
largest private investments in sub-Saharan Africa, a 663-mile, $3.7
billion pipeline snaking from Chad through virgin rain forests to the
Atlantic.
(AP, 6/12/04)
2004 Oct 11, Voters in Cameroon
elected Pres. Paul Biya (71) to another 7-year term amid allegations of
fraud.
(http://4newz.net/nov2004/Cameroon.html)
2005 Sep 16, The French civil
aviation authority DGAC said it has banned flights by Cameroon Airlines
for an indefinite period, citing safety concerns.
(AFP, 9/16/05)
2005 Oct 15, Nigeria and Cameroon
discussed a new program for Nigeria to withdraw from the disputed
Bakassi peninsula, but failed to set a new deadline after two days of
talks in Abuja.
(AP, 10/16/05)
2006 Mar 12, The Cameroon
government announced its first case of bird flu, becoming the fourth
African country to be struck by the virus. New cases were also reported
in Poland and Greece.
(AP, 3/13/06)
2006 Mar 22, A ferry carrying 150
passengers sank off the coast of Cameroon, and 23 people were rescued.
The rest were feared dead. The ferry was bound for Gabon from Nigeria
with passengers from Burkina Faso, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.
(AP, 3/23/06)(SFC, 3/24/06, p.A12)
2006 May 25, Researchers confirmed
that the human AIDS virus originated in a corner of Cameroon in wild
chimpanzees. The first known human to be infected with HIV was a man
from Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1959.
(SFC, 5/26/06, p.A2)(WSJ, 5/26/06, p.A1)
2006 Jun 23, In Cameroon a truck
carrying a load of sand slammed into a passenger bus, killing at least
34 people.
(AP, 6/2306)
2006 Jul 11, A survey, sponsored
by the German development agency GTZ, reported that breast ironing, the
use of hard or heated objects or other substances to try to stunt
breast growth in girls, is widespread in Cameroon. The age-old practice
was said to be traditional in West and Central Africa, including Chad,
Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry, just to name a few.
(Reuters, 7/11/06)
2006 Aug 12, Nigeria pulled
thousands of troops out of the Bakassi peninsula ahead of an August 12
UN deadline for a complete withdrawal, but many residents said they
would resist a handover to Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)
2006 Aug 14, Nigeria formally
handed sovereignty over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to
Cameroon after withdrawing its 3,000 troops in compliance with a
UN-brokered deadline. This ended a 13-year feud between Abuja and
Yaounde. Nigeria will maintain administrative control of southern
Bakassi for the next two years, after which the area will be in a state
of flux for another five years before it will be finally handed over to
Cameroon.
(AP, 8/13/06)(AFP, 8/14/06)
2006 Nov 23, In Cameroon the
African Union's 53 finance ministers, meeting in Yaounde, called for
debt cancellation from their creditors and increased aid packages.
(AP, 11/24/06)
2007 Jan 19, The EU said it has
donated an additional 3.95 million euros ($5 million) to support the
implementation of the Nigeria-Cameroon boundary demarcation project.
(AP, 1/20/07)
2007 Jan 31, Chinese President Hu
Jintao arrived in Cameroon to begin his second African tour to boost
ties with a continent that has many of the oil and commodity reserves
the Asian giant needs for its ballooning economy.
(Reuters, 1/31/07)
2007 Apr 26, Six central African
countries (Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Central African Republic,
Cameroon and Congo) plan to launch a common passport in July,
permitting the free movement of goods and people across their borders.
(AFP, 4/26/07)
2007 May 5, A Kenya Airways jet
with 114 people on board crashed after sending out a distress signal
over a remote rainforest in southern Cameroon. The Boeing 737-800 was
carrying 114 people, including 105 passengers, from 23 countries. There
were no survivors.
(AP, 5/5/07)(AP, 5/7/07)
2007 Jul 22, Parliamentary and
municipal elections were held across Cameroon, with longtime President
Paul Biya's ruling party widely expected to dominate as it has for
decades.
(AP, 7/22/07)
2007 Jul 24, Cameroon President
Paul Biya's governing party won a crushing victory in weekend polls as
the opposition cried foul, saying the west African nation had not
staged fair elections in years.
(AP, 7/24/07)
2007 Nov 9, In Kumba, Cameroon,
one person died and five were injured after security forces fired on a
crowd protesting after a two-week-long power cut. Locals had taken to
the streets to protest the arrest of four high school students
following an earlier demonstration.
(AFP, 11/10/07)
2007 Nov 12, An unknown armed
group killed 19 Cameroonian soldiers in Bakassi, a border region handed
back to Cameroon by Nigeria last year.
(Reuters, 11/13/07)
2007 Nov 14, AGRA, a foundation
set up in 2006 by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan to aid African
farmers, named agricultural expert Amos Namanga Ngongi from Cameroon as
its first president.
(AFP, 11/14/07)
2008 Feb 26, In Cameroon the death
toll after a 2nd day of strike-related violence reached 8. A taxi
drivers' strike over rising fuel costs triggered widespread rioting
exacerbated by anger over the cost of food, high unemployment and plans
by President Paul Biya (75) to change the constitution to extend his
25-year rule for a third term of 7 years. Government ministers said
around 25 to 40 people were killed, although a human rights group put
the toll at over 100.
(AP, 2/27/08)(Econ, 3/1/08, p.49)(Reuters, 3/31/08)
2008 Jun 9, Militants attacked an
oil security vessel off the coast of Nigeria and seized eight navy
personnel and a local Cameroon official. 3 soldiers escaped. On June 15
Cameroon military headquarters said authorities searching for the six
people found five mutilated and bullet-riddled bodies buried in the
mangroves.
(Reuters, 6/9/08)(Reuters, 6/16/08)
2008 Jun 29, In Cameroon prison
guards killed 16 inmates trying to escape from a jail in Douala, the
country's commercial capital. The overcrowded prison was built in the
1930s to hold about 800 inmates, but has at least twice that number.
(AP, 6/30/08)
2008 Jul 24, Ten insurgents and
two Cameroonian soldiers were killed in a rebel attack in the oil-rich
Bakassi peninsula. The rebels, who call themselves the Niger Delta
Defense and Security Council, oppose Cameroon's ownership of the West
African peninsula, which is also claimed by Nigeria.
(AP, 7/25/08)
2008 Aug 14, Nigeria relinquished
control of the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon despite fears the
handover will provoke attacks from local armed groups who oppose it.
(Reuters, 8/14/08)
2008 Aug 20, In Cameroon 9 inmates
were electrocuted while trying to escape from prison.
(SFC, 8/21/08, p.A3)
2008 Oct 31, Heavily-armed pirates
swarmed aboard an oil industry support vessel working off the coast of
Cameroon and kidnapped 10 of 15 crew members, including six Frenchmen.
A man claiming to represent a rebel group opposed to Cameroon's
takeover of the Bakassi Peninsula warned the hostages would be killed
unless Cameroonian officials agreed to reopen the issue.
(AFP, 10/31/08)
2008 Nov 5, A Cameroon militia
leader said one of the 10 hostages seized by a local militia off
Cameroon's coast last week was killed in a failed rescue attempt by
Nigerian marines.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Dec 7, Off the coast of
Cameroon at least three dozen people were missing and feared dead after
a ferryboat accident. It was transporting 43 people in West Africa's
Gulf of Guinea.
(AP, 12/10/08)
2009 Jan 29, An international
rights group said Cameroon's government is employing extrajudicial
killings and torture to crush political opponents, and such violence
may escalate as the global economic crisis deepens.
(AP, 1/29/09)
2009 Jan 30, In Libreville, Gabon,
leaders of the six Central African states (Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, CAR,
Congo, Equatorial Guinea), began meeting to discuss closer economic
ties, including the creation of a new regional airline. The Economic
and Monetary Union of Central Africa, known as CEMAC, planned
discussions on such issues as monetary reform and the free movement of
citizens.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Mar 17, Pope Benedict XVI
arrived in Cameroon to start his first visit to Africa as pontiff.
Benedict, arriving in Africa, said that condoms "increase the problem"
of AIDS. The comment, made to reporters aboard his plane, caused a
worldwide firestorm of criticism.
(Reuters, 3/18/09)
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