Garoua, city in northern Cameroon, capital of North Province, 645 km (400 mi) northwest of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé. A port on the Benue River, a broad tributary of the Niger, Garou contains modern buildings, banks, markets, factories, a training school for park rangers and an international airport with direct connections to Paris. The region is dominated by Muslim nomadic herders, particularly the Fulani. Garoua is the center of an important Fulani chiefdom. The Mandara Mountains, the northernmost section of the Adamawa Plateau, begin just north of town. These rocky escarpments are home to the Kirdi peoples. The term Kirdi, Fulfulde (the language of the Fulani) for “pagan,” is used to collectively describe non-Muslim native peoples driven into the highlands by Fulani expansion. Garoua was under the control of the powerful Fulani caliphate (Muslim state) of Sokoto throughout the 1800s. A German expedition under Lieutenant Edgar von Uschtritz and geographer Siegfried Passarge passed through the city in 1893. On November 19, 1901, a battle near the town between German colonial forces and the Emirate of Yola led to German domination of northern Cameroon. In June 1915 the city was occupied by the French, who were given most of Cameroon as a League of Nations mandate after World War I (1914-1918). Garoua was the birthplace and home of Cameroon's first president Ahmadou Ahidjo, who tended to favor the city with investment and aid. Population (1992 estimate) 160,000.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
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