Level = 0                                         Development: Very Low

Country Overview

What has been going on in Cameroon?

Space Agency and its Activity

What kind of space power do they have?

Weapons and Power Projection

Does Cameroon have space weapons?

Timeline and the Future

What are they planning over there?

OVERVIEW

Since then it has struggled from one-party rule to a multi-party system in which the freedom of expression is severely limited.

Cameroon began its independence with a bloody insurrection which was suppressed only with the help of French forces.

There followed 20 years of repressive government under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Nonetheless, Cameroon saw investment in agriculture, education, health care and transport.

In 1982 Mr Ahidjo was succeeded by his prime minister, Paul Biya. Faced with popular discontent, Mr Biya allowed multi-party presidential elections in 1992, which he won.

In 1994 and 1996 Cameroon and Nigeria fought over the disputed, oil-rich Bakassi peninsula. Nigeria withdraw its troops from the area in 2006 in line with an international court ruling which awarded sovereignty to Cameroon.

Internally, there are tensions over the two mainly English-speaking southern provinces. A secessionist movement, the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), emerged in the 1990s and has been declared as illegal.

Cameroon has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. However, the country's progress is hampered by a level of corruption that is among the highest in the world.

In 1986 Cameroon made the world headlines when poisonous gases escaped from Lake Nyos, killing nearly 2,000 people.

Full name: Republic of Cameroon

• Population: 16.6 million (UN, 2005)
• Capital: Yaounde
• Area: 465,458 sq km (179,714 sq miles)
• Major languages: French, English, languages of Bantu, Semi-Bantu and Sudanic groups
• Major religions: Christianity, Islam, indigenous beliefs
• Life expectancy: 45 years (men), 46 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: 1 CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine) franc = 100 centimes
• Main exports: Crude oil and petroleum products, timber, cocoa, aluminium, coffee, cotton
• GNI per capita: US $1,010 (World Bank, 2006)
• Internet domain: .cm
• International dialling code: +237

President: Paul Biya

Veteran leader Paul Biya won a new seven-year term in presidential elections in October 2004, with more than 70% of the vote. Commonwealth observers accepted the result, but said the poll lacked credibility in key areas. Opposition parties alleged widespread fraud.

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 Cameroon's Space Infrastructure

Cameroon is one of the world's poorest countries, but unlike its neighbors in the extremely poverty stricken swathe from West Africa to the Horn in the East, Cameroon has a long and coherent history- a tradition of centralized statehood. Not only does it not have an agency, but also no infrastructure in which one would arise. The University of Yaounde does not offer astrophysics, astronautics or aeronautics, and the government has no ministry devoted to science of this type.

Cameroon has no history of being part of any organization dealing with space, nor has any launch capability.

Cameroon lacks the industrial base, the educational base and the political foundation for a process like this to occur within it.

Cameroon operates no satellites and, not having a presence, has no space power.

The government of Cameroon in Yaounde has no plans for attempting to further any ambition in space development or research.

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WEAPONS AND POWER

 None

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Timeline of Events in Cameroon

...From the Past to the Future

1520 - Portuguese set up sugar plantations and begin slave trade in Cameroon.

Yaounde: Capital was founded under German rule

• Capital of independent Cameroon from 1960
• Yaounde population: 1.4 million

1884 - Germans extend protectorate over Cameroon.

1916 - British and French troops force Germans to leave Cameroon.

1919 - London Declaration divides Cameroon into a British administrative zone (20 per cent of the land, divided into Northern and Southern Cameroons) and a French one (80 per cent).

1922 - League of Nations confers mandates on Britain and France for their respective administrative zones.

1946 - British and French mandates renewed as UN trusteeships.

Independence

1958 - French Cameroon granted self-government with Ahmadou Ahidjo as prime minister.

1960 - French Cameroon granted independence and becomes the Republic of Cameroon with Ahidjo as president.

1961 - Following a UN-sponsored referendum, the (British) Southern Cameroons join the Republic of Cameroon to become the Federal Republic of Cameroon, while Northern Cameroons join Nigeria.

1961-63 - Large-scale insurrection, believed to have been orchestrated by the Cameroonian People's Party, put down with the help of French forces.

1966 - National Cameroonian Union formed out of six major parties and becomes the sole legal party.

1972 - Cameroon becomes a unitary state following a national referendum and is renamed the United Republic of Cameroon.

Paul Biya era

1982 - Prime Minister Paul Biya succeeds Ahidjo, who resigns.

1983 - Ahidjo goes into exile after Biya accuses him of masterminding a coup.

1984 - Biya elected to his first full term as president, changes the country's name to the Republic of Cameroon.

1986 - Discharge of poisonous gases from Lake Nyos kills nearly 2,000 people.

1992 October - Biya re-elected in Cameroon's first multiparty presidential election.

Poisonous gas from Lake Nyos killed more than 1,700 people

1994 - Fighting between Cameroon and Nigeria flares up over disputed oil-rich Bakassa Peninsula.

1996 January-May - Cameroonian-Nigerian border clashes.

1996 May - Cameroon and Nigeria agree to UN mediation over Bakassa Peninsula.

1997 May - Biya's party, the Cameroon National Democratic Movement (formerly the National Cameroonian Union), wins a majority of seats in parliament amid allegations of irregularities.

1997 October - Biya re-elected president in ballot that is boycotted by main opposition parties.

1998 - Cameroon classed as the most corrupt country in the world by business monitor Transparency International.

2000 June - World Bank approves funding for oil and pipeline project in Cameroon and Chad despite strong criticism from environmental and human rights activists.

2000 October - Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon denounces corruption, saying it has permeated all levels of society.

Nigerian troops left disputed, oil-rich Bakassi in 2006

2001 June - Fears for Cameroon's environment increase, with Global Forest Watch reporting that 80% of the country's indigenous forests have been allocated for logging.

2001 October - Growing tension between Biya government and separatists lobbying on behalf of country's 5m English-speakers. Unrest results in three deaths, several arrests.

2002 July - Parliamentary and municipal elections; opposition claims fraud and vote-rigging.

Bakassi ruling

2002 October - Ruling by International Court of Justice (ICJ) gives sovereignty of oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon. But Nigeria, whose forces occupy the area, rejects the ruling.

2003 December - Nigeria hands over 32 villages to Cameroon as part of the 2002 ICJ border deal. In January 2004 both countries agree to mount joint border patrols.

2004 September - Nigeria fails to meet a deadline to hand over Bakassi.

2004 November - Paul Biya wins new seven-year term as president.

2006 June - Nigeria agrees to withdraw its troops from the Bakassi peninsula to settle its long-running border dispute with Cameroon. The breakthrough comes at a UN-mediated summit.

The Paris Club of major lending nations agrees to cancel almost all of Cameroon's $3.5bn debt.

2006 August - A ceremony marks the transfer of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon after Nigeria completes its troop withdrawal from the area.

2006 December - Up to 30,000 refugees fleeing conflicts in Chad and the Central African Republic have crossed into east Cameroon over the past 18 months, the UN refugee agency UNHCR reports.

TODAY AND INTO THE FUTURE

Nothing Planned

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