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Cameroon
Population: 13.9 million Life expectancy male/female: 53/56 years Infant mortality rate: 10..3%	Religions: Animists 45%; Catholics 21%; Muslims 20%; Protestants 14% Independence: 1st January 1960 (from France) GDP per capita: US$ 710 (1995)

Spiritan presence: 55 professed members (2 bishops, 45 priests, 2 brothers, 1 scholastic).

With 13 million inhabitants, the Cameroon is the most heavily populated of the francophone countries in the region. Stretching from the Sahel to the great forest, it has more than 150 different ethnic groups. The varied economic possibilities gave a period of relative prosperity until the 1990s.

The Church celebrated its centenary in the South in 1990. Its can boast of a vibrant Christianity, a large number of priests and religious, with good structures for their formation (e.g. the recently opened Catholic Institute in Yaoundé). With some priests and seminarians, one detects a degree of clericalism. In the North, evangelisation is only 50 years old.
The Spiritans arrived in 1916. They were most numerous around 1960, and still numbered 85 in 1992 when the two Districts of Yaoundé and Doumé joined together. In 1997, there were around 50. Most come from 8 different European Provinces, above all France and Holland. There are also 10 confreres from FAC and Nigeria.

In the Centre and the South, the parochial apostolate is the same as in the rest of the region; special emphasis is put on spiritual direction of individuals, human advancement and rural development, and the struggle against injustice and corruption. In the North, the confreres are no longer concentrating exclusively on people of traditional religion, but are also turning their attention towards the Moslems. Development works are also given much attention.

The priority commitments of the District are those of primary evangelisation: in the Sahel region of the North, with the Pygmies in the East, in an area where communications are very difficult in the diocese of Bafia. Under the same heading must come the ministry in the large towns (Yauondé, Douala, Maroua), with special attention given to the young people. The appointment of young confreres and the availability of those who are more experienced remain indispensable if these works are to continue.

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