The highest point in Cameroon is Fako 4,095 m (Mt. Cameroon).

Mount Cameroon, an active volcano, erupted six times in the twentieth century.

It is thought that Bantu migrations may have started from the highlands of Cameroon around two thousand years ago.

The Dja Faunal Reserve, a World Heritage site, is home to a population of pygmies who follow their traditional way of life within the reserve.

The Portuguese established sugar plantations in Cameroon in the early 1500s.

The name Cameroon is derived from "camaroes", the Portuguese word for prawns. The use of this name for the country was a reference to the availability of the shellfish.

The Dutch arrived in Cameroon in the seventeenth century.

The slave trade in West Africa flourished between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

European countries traded in slaves until legislation prohibited the trade. Acts of Parliament were passed in European countries at different times.

In 1884 Germany established a protectorate over Cameroon.

During the First World War, British and French troops forced the Germans to leave the country.

After the War administration of Cameroon was divided between the British (twenty percent) and the French (eighty percent).

In 1960 French Cameroon became the Republic of Cameroon.

[British] Southern Cameroons joined the Republic of Cameroon in 1961. This amalgamation formed the Federal Republic of Cameroon. (Northern Cameroons - formerly administered by Britain - joined Nigeria).

In 1972 Cameroon became the United Republic of Cameroon. The name changed to the Republic of Cameroon in 1984.

The Republic of Cameroon is a member of the [British] Commonwealth.

In 1986 over one thousand seven hundred people died when lethal gas escaped from Lake Nyos, a volcanic lake.

In the early 1990s a dispute erupted between Cameroon and Nigeria over the ownership of the Bakassi Peninsula and its oil deposits. The Peninsula was handed over to Cameroon in August 2008.

The coordination of AIDS control in Cameroon is undertaken by the National AIDS Control Committee (CNLS).

Helps International Cameroon (HINT - www.hint.interconnection.org) is an organization that works to alleviate poverty, unemployment, computer illiteracy, child-related problems and HIV/AIDS.