Batouri | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 4°26′N14°22′E / 4.433°N 14.367°E | |
Country | Cameroon |
Province | East |
Department | Kadey |
Elevation | 617 m (2,024 ft) |
Population (2012) | |
• Total | 33,594 |
Batouri is a town and commune in the East Province of Cameroon. [1] It is the second largest municipality in the province after the provincial capital Bertoua. It is located on the main (though unpaved) road connecting Bertoua to the Central African Republic and to the Cameroonian town of Yokadouma. It had an estimated 33,500 inhabitants as of 2012.
Batouri is mostly dominated by fulbe/fulani people and a large percentage of the population speaks the Fulani language fulfulde. However several other ethnic groups, such as the Baya, Yangélé, and the Mézimé are also native to the area. In addition there are many recent immigrants to the Batouri area. Many come from other parts of southern Cameroon and speak other Bantu languages. There is also a large Muslim population in town living mainly in the Mokolo quarter. Most people speak French though Fulfulde serves as a lingua franca for much of the Muslim community and is spoken widely throughout the town. There are also a number of other language groups, notably Arabic . There are a number of Cameroonian English and Cameroonian Pidgin speakers as well. All of the languages spoken, except for the colonial languages, Pidgin, Hausa, and Arabic are part of the Niger–Congo family.
Batouri lies on the South Cameroon Plateau at an elevation of about 653 m (2142 ft). It has a Guinea type climate which is hot and humid for most of the year with a dry season from mid-November to early March, then another small one in July. The wettest times of the year are April and May and then August through October. October is the wettest month with an average of 240.6 mm (9.5 in) of rain and January is the driest with an average of 17.3 mm (0.68 in). The average annual precipitation is 1479.4 mm (58.2 in).
Temperature extremes are greatest during the dry season with the highest average high temperatures of 32.1 °C (89.8 °F) in February and the lowest average lows of 17.1 °C (62.8 °F) in January. Meanwhile, the wet season produces more tempered average daily temperature fluctuations with both July and August having average highs 27.4 °C (81.3 °F), and average lows of 27.4 °C (66.0 °F).
Like Bertoua, Batouri lies in an area of transition of vegetation and climatic zones. In a simplified description the Guinea savanna vegetation lies north of the town while the lowland rainforest vegetation lies south of the town. However, much of the forest around Batouri is severely degraded. Wooded areas follow rivers northward and can extend many miles into the surrounding Guinea vegetation.
The topography consists mostly of gently rolling hills. There is a large granite outcrop called Mt. Pandi about 25 km (15.5 mi) north of town, just west of the P5 road to Ngoura.
The Kadéï River flows just west of town (3.5 km or 2 mi). The area all drains into the Kadéï and is part of the large Congo River basin.
Batouri has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen climate classification Aw).
Climate data for Batouri | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 30.9 (87.6) | 32.1 (89.8) | 31.6 (88.9) | 31.1 (88.0) | 30.2 (86.4) | 28.6 (83.5) | 27.4 (81.3) | 27.4 (81.3) | 28.3 (82.9) | 28.9 (84.0) | 29.5 (85.1) | 29.3 (84.7) | 29.6 (85.3) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 23.7 (74.7) | 25.4 (77.7) | 25.8 (78.4) | 25.5 (77.9) | 24.9 (76.8) | 23.8 (74.8) | 23.1 (73.6) | 23.2 (73.8) | 23.6 (74.5) | 23.9 (75.0) | 23.9 (75.0) | 23.1 (73.6) | 24.2 (75.6) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 17.1 (62.8) | 18.6 (65.5) | 19.7 (67.5) | 20.0 (68.0) | 19.6 (67.3) | 19.1 (66.4) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.9 (66.0) | 18.8 (65.8) | 18.4 (65.1) | 17.0 (62.6) | 18.7 (65.7) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 17.3 (0.68) | 32.5 (1.28) | 101.2 (3.98) | 121.5 (4.78) | 172.8 (6.80) | 153.9 (6.06) | 135.0 (5.31) | 165.3 (6.51) | 221.5 (8.72) | 240.6 (9.47) | 91.9 (3.62) | 25.9 (1.02) | 1,479.4 (58.24) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 15 | 14 | 12 | 15 | 19 | 22 | 10 | 3 | 137 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 172.0 | 171.0 | 173.7 | 187.3 | 202.2 | 154.3 | 118.0 | 99.8 | 125.3 | 151.7 | 186.0 | 175.7 | 1,917 |
Source: NOAA [2] |
Batouri is home to a post office, three health centers, a government hospital, an Adventist hospital, and a Catholic health centre (Centre de Santé Catholique). It is the seat of the prefecture for the Kadey Department and it is the seat of Catholic Dioceses and three parishes (St. Martin, St. John and Notre Dame).
Hospitals in Batouri have provided care to refugees fleeing violence in the Central African Republic, as it is one of the nearest medical facilities for the refugee camps on the Cameroon-CAR border. [3] An assessment released 4 July 2014 indicated that "in Cameroon, up to 1 out of 3 refugee children from Central African Republic suffer from malnutrition ... The risk of severe acute malnutrition, which can be deadly if left untreated, is particularly high. In the inpatient center of Batouri close to the border, the mortality rate in May exceeded 24 per cent." [4]
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages, in addition to the national tongues of English and French, or both.
At 475,440 km2 (183,570 sq mi), Cameroon is the world's 53rd largest country. It is slightly larger than the nation of Sweden and the US state of California. It is comparable in size to Papua New Guinea. Cameroon's landmass is 472,710 km2 (182,510 sq mi), with 2,730 km2 (1,050 sq mi) of water.
The demographic profile of Cameroon is complex for a country of its population. Cameroon comprises an estimated 250 distinct ethnic groups, which may be formed into five large regional-cultural divisions:
The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people is an ethnic group in Sahara, Sahel and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan. The approximate number of Fula people is unknown, due to clashing definitions regarding Fula ethnicity. Various estimates put the figure between 25 and 40 million people worldwide.
Yola, meaning 'Great Plain' or 'Vast Plain Land', is a large city, capital city and administrative centre of Adamawa State, Nigeria. It is located on the Benue River, and it has a population of over 336,648 (2010). Yola is split into two parts. The old town of Yola where the Lamido resides is the traditional city and the new city of Jimeta is the administrative and commercial centre. They are generally referred to as Yola.
The East Region occupies the southeastern portion of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the east by the Central African Republic, to the south by Congo, to the north by the Adamawa Region, and to the west by the Centre and South Regions. With 109,002 km2 of territory, it is the largest region in the nation as well as the most sparsely populated. Historically, the peoples of the East have been settled in Cameroonian territory for longer than any other of the country's many ethnic groups, the first inhabitants being the Baka pygmies.
The Adamawa Region is a constituent region of the Republic of Cameroon. It borders the Centre and East regions to the south, the Northwest and West regions to the southwest, Nigeria to the west, the Central African Republic (CAR) to the east, and the North Region to the north.
Garoua is a port city and the capital of the North Region of Cameroon, lying on the Benue River. A thriving centre of the textiles and cotton industries, the city has approximately 1,285,000 inhabitants in 2020, mostly Fulbe/Fulani people.
Articles related to Cameroon include:
Ngaoundéré or N'Gaoundéré is the capital of the Adamawa Region of Cameroon. It had a population of 152,700 at the 2005 census. According to the film Les Mairuuwas – Maitre de l'eau produced by the University of Tromsø, the population has rapidly risen to 1,000,000 owing to mass immigration from the Central African Republic and the perceived danger from Boko Haram in northern Cameroon.
The North Region makes up 66,090 km2 of the northern half of The Republic of Cameroon. Neighbouring territories include the Far North Region to the north, the Adamawa Region to the south, Nigeria to the west, Chad to the east, and Central African Republic to the southeast. The city of Garoua is both the political and industrial capital. Garoua is Cameroon's third largest port, despite the fact that the Bénoué River upon which it relies is only navigable for short periods of the year.
Mokolo is the departmental capital and largest city of the Mayo-Tsanaga department, in the Far North Province of Cameroon. It is the fourth largest city in the Far North Province, after Maroua, Yagoua, and Kousséri. It is located in the Mandara Mountains that run along the Cameroonian-Nigerian border.
The Far North Region, also known as the Extreme North Region, is the northernmost and most populous constituent province of the Republic of Cameroon. It borders the North Region to the south, Chad to the east, and Nigeria to the west. The capital is Maroua.
The South Cameroon Plateau or Southern Cameroon Plateau is the dominant geographical feature of Cameroon. The plateau lies south of the Adamawa Plateau and southeast of the Cameroon Range. It slopes south and west until giving way to the Cameroon coastal plain in the southwest and the Congo River basin in the southeast. The plateau is characterised by hills and valleys in the southwest and a more gentle peneplain in the southwest. Isolated massifs occur, especially in the southwest. Metamorphic rocks make up the plain's basement. The soils are ferrallitic and lateritic, with colouration ranging from red or brown in the interior to yellow on the coast. The soils are subjected to silica leeching, so they are not productive without fertiliser.
The Cameroonian Highlands forests, also known as the Cameroon Highlands forests, are a montane tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion located on the range of mountains that runs inland from the Gulf of Guinea and forms the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. This is an area of forest and grassland which has become more populous as land is cleared for agriculture.
The Western High Plateau, Western Highlands or Bamenda Grassfields is a region of Cameroon characterised by high relief, cool temperatures, heavy rainfall and savanna vegetation. The region lies along the Cameroon line and consists of mountain ranges and volcanoes made of crystalline and igneous rock. The region borders the South Cameroon Plateau to the southeast, the Adamawa Plateau to the northeast and the Cameroon coastal plain to the south.
Kako is a Bantu language spoken mainly in Cameroon, with some speakers in the Central African Republic and the Republic of the Congo. The main population centres of Kako speakers are Batouri and Ndélélé in the East Region of Cameroon.
The climate of Cameroon is very diverse. Cameroon is generally referred to as the Africa in miniature because it has the major climates and vegetation of the continent. The country is separated in two mains climatic zones: the equatorial climate in the south and the tropical climate in the northern part.
As of 31 August 2020, Cameroon hosted a total refugee population of approximately 421,700. Of these, 280,500 were from the Central African Republic, driven by war and insecurity. In the Far North Region, Cameroon hosts 114,300 Nigerian refugees, with the population sharing their already scarce resources with the refugees.
Gbiti is a border town in the East Province in Cameroon.