SUMMARY

Cameroon was until the end of First World War a German colony. After Germany lost the world war the Cameroon came under the mandate of League of Nation and was split in a French and a English part. On 1 January 1960 the French Cameroon became independent and on 1 October 1961 the formerly British Southern Cameroon became independent and integrated with the Northern Cameroon. When Cameroon gained independence Ahmadou Ahidjo became president and he stayed in power until 1982. During Ahidjo´s time as President of Cameroon he ruled with a strong hand and there were no democracy. This continued under his successor Paul Biya until multi-party democracy in December 1990. Paul Biya stayed in power following the first democratic elections held in October 1992 and was re-elected 1997 and 2004 for another seven years period. However, the opposition claimed that these elections were not free and fair. In 2008, the two-term limit introduced in the 1996 constitution was removed, allowing Biya to be re-elected in 2011 and 2018.

The government of Cameroon has been involved in the interstate, intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organised violence.