Sangmélima is a town on the Lobo River, and also the chief town of Dja-et-Lobo, in the South Region of

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

. The language spoken there is Bulu.

History

In 1963, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sangmélima was founded.

Economy

Bushmeat

In Sangmélima,

bushmeat Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are Hunting, hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity in poor and rural communities of humid tropical forest regions of the worl ...

is prevelant and publicly traded, with local authorities overlooking its sale. Hunters gather meat from nearby forests, and are transported to villages, where they sell on temporary tables. Being situated near the Dja Faunal Reserve, as well as being at the center of Dja-et-Lobo, Sangmélima is the deparment's center for bushmeat trade. Animals such as

chimpanzees The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the ...

duikers A duiker is a small to medium-sized brown antelope native to sub-Saharan Africa, found in heavily wooded areas. The 22 extant species, including three sometimes considered to be subspecies of the other species, form the subfamily Cephalophinae ...

and

gorillas Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...

are hunted, and they are eaten because of local belief that its medicinal. Through the 2010s, the price of bushmeat exceeded conventional meat. The consumption of such meat has caused

ebola Ebola, also known as Ebola virus disease (EVD) and Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF), is a viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and other primates, caused by ebolaviruses. Symptoms typically start anywhere between two days and three weeks after in ...

outbreaks in the area.

Transportation

Sangmélima was connected to Ouésso by

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

until 2021, when a 321.5-kilometer road connected the two, costing US$354 million. The road's opening ceremony was attended by . Another road—65 kilometers in length—connected Sangmélima to . Construction began .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sangmelima Populated places in South Region (Cameroon)