Batouri is a town and commune in the East Province of

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

. 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 The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

and to the Cameroonian town of

Yokadouma Yokadouma is a town and Catholic bishopric in eastern Cameroon, lying near the border with the Central African Republic. It was an early French administrative centre. During the colonial period, Yokadouma was the centre for a widespread but ill-f ...

. It had an estimated 33,500 inhabitants as of 2012.

People

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

and speak other

Bantu languages The Bantu languages (English: , Proto-Bantu: *bantʊ̀) are a large family of languages spoken by the Bantu people of Central, Southern, Eastern africa and Southeast Africa. They form the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid languages. The t ...

. There is also a large

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

population in town living mainly in the Mokolo quarter. Most people speak French though

Fulfulde Fula ,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh also known as Fulani or Fulah (, , ; Adlam: , , ), is a Senegambian language spoken by around 30 million people as a set of various dialects in a continuum that stre ...

serves as a

lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...

for much of the Muslim community and is spoken widely throughout the town. There are also a number of other language groups, notably

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

. 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.

Geography

Batouri lies on the

South Cameroon Plateau The South Cameroon Plateau or Southern Cameroon Plateau (french: Plateau Sud-Camerounais) 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 ...

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 A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

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 The Kadéï River is a tributary of the Sangha River that flows through Cameroon and the Central African Republic. Its total drainage basin is 24,000 km. The river rises from the eastern Adamawa Plateau, southeast of Garoua-Boulaï () in Came ...

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 The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...

basin.

Climate

Batouri has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...

''Aw'').

Institutions

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 Kadey (also spelled Kadéï, Kadéi, Kadeï or Kadei) is a department of East Province in Cameroon. The department covers an area of 15,884 km and as of 2001 had a total population of 192,927. The capital of the department lies at Batouri. Su ...

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 A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

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. 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 Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is "a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients" which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...

... 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."

Gallery

File:Poste de Batouri.jpg, Post office of Batouri File:Alliance Batouri.jpg, Transportation in Batouri File:Gare routière de Batouri.jpg, Batouri bus sation File:Eglise Catholique diocese de Batouri.jpg, Catholic Church in Batouri

References

{{Communes of East Region, Cameroon Populated places in East Region (Cameroon) Communes of Cameroon