The modern state of Cameroon was created in 1961 by the unification of two former colonies, one British and one French.

Since then it has struggled from one-party rule to a multi-party system in which the freedom of expression is severely limited.

Cameroon began its independence with a bloody insurrection which was suppressed only with the help of French forces.

There followed 20 years of repressive government under President Ahmadou Ahidjo. Nonetheless, Cameroon saw investment in agriculture, education, health care and transport.

In 1982 Mr Ahidjo was succeeded by his prime minister, Paul Biya. Faced with popular discontent, Mr Biya allowed multi-party presidential elections in 1992, which he won.

In 1994 and 1996 Cameroon and Nigeria fought over the disputed, oil-rich Bakassi peninsula. Nigeria withdrew its troops from the area in 2006 in line with an international court ruling which awarded sovereignty to Cameroon.

In November 2007 the Nigerian senate passed a motion declaring as illegal the Nigeria-Cameroon agreement for the Bakassi Peninsula to be handed over to Cameroon.

Internally, there are tensions over the two mainly English-speaking southern provinces. A secessionist movement, the Southern Cameroon National Council (SCNC), emerged in the 1990s and has been declared as illegal.

Cameroon has one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. However, the country's progress is hampered by a level of corruption that is among the highest in the world.

In 1986 Cameroon made the world headlines when poisonous gases escaped from Lake Nyos, killing nearly 2,000 people.

President: Paul Biya

Cameroon's parliament in April 2008 passed a controversial amendment to the constitution enabling President Paul Biya to run for a third term of office in 2011.

The veteran politician - who has ruled the country since 1982 - won a new seven-year term in presidential elections in October 2004. Commonwealth observers accepted the result, but said the poll lacked credibility in key areas. Opposition parties alleged widespread fraud.

Mr Biya won multi-party polls in 1992 and 1997. The latter were boycotted by the three main opposition parties.

Before becoming president, Mr Biya spent his entire political career in the service of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, becoming prime minister in 1975.

With Mr Ahidjo's resignation in 1982 he assumed the leadership and set about replacing his predecessor's northern allies with fellow southerners.

In 1983 he accused Mr Ahidjo of organising a coup against him, forcing the former president to flee the country.

Born in 1933, Paul Biya was educated in Cameroon and France, where he studied law at the Sorbonne.

The government tightly controls the broadcast media. State-run CRTV operates national TV and radio networks and provincial radio stations.

State TV's monopoly was broken with the arrival in 2001 of TV Max, Cameroon's first private TV station. Dozens of private radio stations sprang up following a liberalisation of telecommunications in 2000.

Newspapers - the public's main source of news - are subject to considerable official restrictions.

Tough libel legislation is in place. In 2006 the media rights body Reporters Without Borders noted that: "Draconian laws regularly put journalists behind bars."

Secessionists in the mainly English-speaking southern provinces have used pirate radio broadcasts to spread their message.

BBC programming in English, French and Hausa is available across much of the country via FM relays.

The press

• Le Messager - privately-owned, Douala-based
• Cameroon Tribune - state-owned daily in French, English
• Mutations - privately-owned French-language daily
• The Herald - English-language
• The Post - private, English-language
• La Nouvelle Expression - private, French-language

Television

• Cameroon Radio Television - state-run
• Canal 2 - private
• STV - private

Radio

• Cameroon Radio Television - state-run
• Radio Reine - Catholic station
• Radio Siantou - private

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 multiparty 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.

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 May - A Kenya Airways plane crashes, killing all 114 people on board.

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.

2008 January - Oppostion 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.

2010 November - Five die in a suspected pirate attack on a boat on its way to an oil rig in the Cameroonian part of the Gulf of Guinea.