Ngaoundéré

The Mbum were the earlier population of the surrounding area before the 19th-century invasion of the Fulani. The Fulani have ruled the area since the foundation of Ngaoundere in approximately 1835 in conjunction with the Mbum, who are considered a protected people according to Islamic law. The ruler is required to be descended from the ruling Fulani family on his father's side, extending back to the first Lamido of Ngaoundéré Ardo Njobdi of Boundang. On his mother's side, he is expected to be an Mbum descendant, so that he may represent the entirety of the population. Being the largest city in the Adamawa Region by far, Ngaoundéré attracts numerous settlers from the surrounding rural areas, including Díi from further north, Gbaya from the Meiganga area and Pere from the west. The population expanded greatly after completion of the railway in 1973, with a large percentage of the additional population originating from outside of Adamawa Region. This is evident in the ironic dichotomy between the so-called Grand Marché, adjacent to the Grand Mosqué and housing mainly local merchants, and the much larger Petit Marché located to the northwest in a neighbourhood housing a population largely originating in the southern regions of Cameroon.

The Camrail railway from Yaoundé ends here, and Ngaoundéré Central Station is always sprawling with life. An extension of this railway 700 km to Chad was approved in 2015.[5] According to a report from Business in Cameroon, the Cameroonian government and the African Development Bank group (AfDB) signed on 19 July 2017 in Yaoundé, a memorandum on the feasibility studies for the project to extend the Cameroonian railway to Chad, from the Cameroon Railways (Camrail) terminal in Ngaoundéré, the Adamawa regional capital, in northern Cameroon.

There is a paved road, albeit with some potholes, extending from Ngaoundéré to Garoua and Maroua, and Chad. The main goods are bananas, fruits and general goods from the south. The north sends cotton stemming from North and Chad, and cattle from Adamaoua towards the south.

Ngaoundéré Airport has a 1.6 km strip, capable of accepting Boeing 737 and similar aircraft. In the 1980s and early 1990s, the airport had several flights a week to both Yaoundé and Douala in the south, Garoua in the north, and N'Djamena, Chad. Because of economic decline and the decline of the national carrier, Cameroon Airlines, the airport currently sees very little traffic, if any. The airports ICAO code is FKKN while the IATA code is NGE.

Ngaoundéré is linked to the Cameroonian microwave network, but the system is not very reliable. The Fulani radio station Sawtu Linjiila is located in the city.[6]

Many private companies have two-way satellite communications and there are many cybercafés in the city.