The Mayo Kébbi is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

. The river rises in

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

, then flows west into the

Bénoué River The Benue River (french: la Bénoué), previously known as the Chadda River or Tchadda, is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months. The size of its bas ...

. Mayo-Kébbi Prefecture in

is named for it. The Mayo Kébbi is the major outlet for

Lake Fianga Lake Fianga is a lake in Chad and Cameroon. It does not have clearly delineated borders, as it forms the western border of an area of permanent swampland. The lake forms with the seasonal flooding of the Logone River. References Fianga Fia ...

, shared between

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 ...

and Chad. In the past, the Mayo Kébbi served as the outlet of the paleolake Mega-Chad.Leblanc et al. (2006). "Reconstruction of megalake Chad using shuttle radar topographic mission data". ''Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology'' 239, pp. 16–27 1872-616X The presence of African manatees in the inflows of Lake Chad is evidence of this, since the manatee is otherwise only in rivers connected to the Atlantic Ocean (i.e. it is not possible that it evolved separately in an enclosed Chad Basin). The grand scale of the Mayo Kébbi river course is also evidence of earlier overflow from Mega-Chad; the upstream catchment of today is far too small to have dug such a large channel.

References

Rivers of Cameroon Rivers of Chad Benue River Lake Fianga International rivers of Africa {{Cameroon-river-stub