Cameroon is often known as “Africa in miniature” because of its geographical and cultural diversity.

The Central African country has one of the highest literacy rates on the continent, but its economic progress has been hampered by corruption and decades of authoritarian rule.

Created in 1961 by the unification of a British and a French colony, the modern state of Cameroon has also struggled to find peace and unity.

Internally, there are tensions over the two mainly English-speaking south-western provinces. A secessionist movement emerged in the 1990s, and turned into an insurgency in 2016.

The mainly-Muslim far north has been drawn into the regional Islamist insurgency of the Boko Haram group.

Some key dates in Cameroon’s history:

1520 – Portuguese set up sugar plantations and begin slave trade, taken over by the Dutch in the 1600s.

1884 – Cameroon becomes the German colony of Kamerun. It expands in 1911 when France cedes territory to Germany.

1916 – British and French troops force Germans to leave Cameroon, which is partitioned between France and Britain at the end of the First World War.

1958 – French Cameroon granted self-government with Ahmadou Ahidjo as prime minister. The country becomes independent two years later, and Mr Ahidjo becomes president.

1961 – Britain’s Cameroons colonies divide between Cameroon and Nigeria after a referendum. A large-scale insurrection mars the country’s first years of independence until it is put down in 1963 with the help of French forces.

1982 – Prime Minister Paul Biya succeeds Ahidjo, who flees the country the following year after President Biya accuses him of masterminding a coup.

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

2014 – Cameroon faces increased attacks from the jihadist group Boko Haram.

2016 – Activists in Anglophone areas step up a campaign for greater autonomy, prompting a fierce response from the government.

Source: BBC (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-13146029)