21 February 2013 Last updated at 04:49 ET

Cameroon profile

• Overview
• Facts
• Leaders
• Media
• Timeline

A chronology of key events:

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

1600s - Dutch take over slave trade from Portuguese.

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 multi-party presidential election.

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.

Corruption

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.

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.

2007 July - Legislative elections. President Biya's party retains a majority in parliament.

2007 November - Suspected Nigerian militants kill 21 Cameroon soldiers in Bakassi Peninsula.

Nigerian senate rejects Nigeria-Cameroon agreement for hand-over of Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon.

Constitution amended

2008 January - Opposition leaders slam President Biya's New Year message hinting at changing constitution to extend president's term in office.

2008 February - A nationwide transport strike in protest at fuel costs turns into a series of anti-government demonstrations in the capital, Yaounde, leaving at least 17 dead.

2008 April - Parliament amends the constitution to allow President Biya to run for a third term in 2011. The opposition condemns the move as a "constitutional coup".

2008 August - Nigeria hands over the potentially oil-rich Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon, bringing an end to a long-standing dispute over the territory.

2008 October - Nigeria and Cameroon agree to work together to protect their land and sea border from attacks by militants and pirates.

2009 March - Pope visits, says peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians in Cameroon should be seen as an example to other African nations.

2010 April - Managing editor of the Cameroun Express, Bibi Ngota, dies in prison.

2010 September - Senior security officials are sacked weeks after rumours of an attempted coup.

2011 January - Cameroon secures Chinese loan to build deep sea port at Kribi, terminal of an oil pipeline from Chad.

2011 June - Government bans all buses and taxis from using the roads at night to reduce Cameroon's high number of fatal traffic accidents.

2011 October - Paul Biya wins a landslide re-election as president, officially taking 78% of the vote. His opponents reject the result, alleging widespread fraud.

2012 February - Hundreds of elephants are slaughtered in Bouba Ndijida national park in a wave of ivory poaching blamed on Sudanese and Chadian gangs.

2012 September - Minister Marafa Hamidou Yaya is jailed for embezzling $29 million meant as a down payment on a presidential plane.

2012 November - President Biya celebrates 30 years in power as riot police disperse an opposition protest.

2013 February - France urges its citizens to leave northern Cameroon after seven members of a family are kidnapped by Islamist militants.