بافوسام

Bafoussam is the capital and largest city of the West Region of Cameroon, in the Bamboutos Mountains. It is the 3rd most important (financially) city in Cameroon, after Yaoundé and Douala. The communauté urbaine (Urban Community) of Bafoussam, is a decentralized territorial collectivity. Originally called Urban Commune of Bafoussam, the communauté urbaine (Urban Community) of Bafoussam, was born after the Presidential Decree N ° 2008/022 of January 17, 2008 and composed of three communes, namely: the Commune of Bafoussam I (Bafoussam proper), the Commune of Bafoussam II (Baleng) and the Commun

OverviewAI-generated

Bafoussam is a city and village located in the West region of Cameroon. It serves as the capital of both the West region and the Mifi division. The settlement has a population of 480,000 and covers an area of 402. Situated at an elevation of 1,521 meters above sea level, Bafoussam is in the UTC+01:00 time zone. The city is twinned with Bayeux.

Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

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7-day forecast

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Place details

Locality: Bafoussam
Region: Ouest
Country: Cameroun
Population: 373,268
Timezone: Africa/Douala

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

60US AQIModerate

PM2.5: 21.5 µg/m³
PM10: 23.6 µg/m³

As of 2026-08-11 02:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

Settlement.official_name: Bafoussam
Settlement.native_name: Fu'sap
Settlement.settlement_type: Communauté Urbaine
Settlement.image_skyline: Entrée principale marché - Bafoussam.jpg
Settlement.image_caption: Bafoussam town centre
Settlement.pushpin_map: Cameroon#Africa
Settlement.pushpin_label_position: bottom
Settlement.pushpin_map_caption: Location in Cameroon
Settlement.subdivision_type: Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1: Region
Settlement.subdivision_name1: West
Settlement.subdivision_type2: Department
Settlement.subdivision_name2: Mifi
Settlement.leader_title: Government Delegate (Délégué du Gouvernement)
Settlement.leader_name: Nzété Emmanuel
Settlement.established_title: Settled
Settlement.established_date: 14th Century
Settlement.established_title2: Incorporated (Town)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of: village
Country: Cameroon
Located in: West
Population: 480000
Area: 402
Elevation: 1521
Time zone: UTC+01:00
Image: 6. Vue aérienne de la ville de Bafoussam.jpg

Show 6 more facts

topic's main category: Category:Bafoussam
category for people born here: Category:Births in Bafoussam
category of associated people: Category:People from Bafoussam
Commons category: Bafoussam
twinned administrative body: Bayeux
P12749: ariary

Sources (8)

via Wikidata · CC0

Travel guide

Understand

Bafoussam isn't the most clean, picturesque, or polite city in Cameroon, but because of Cameroon's hierarchical organization, it has a central location in the Grand West. It is a major hub for Bamiléké culture, especially French Bamiléké culture.

Get in

Bafoussam is located at the intersection of roads going to Douala, Yaoundé, Bamenda, and Foumban (and from there, the West Adamawa), and the road to Dschang is only a short ways away.

Get around

All within-Bafoussam travel is provided by taxis or moto-taxis. Most destinations will tell you "what to say" to a taxi. Taxis are cheap; you can get halfway across Bafoussam for 100 FCFA.

"Downtown" Bafoussam is located at the Rond Point Biao, or Marché A. From here there are the three roads, one going north (to carrefour Dschang and Bamenda; cars at Marché B), one going south (which forks into a road going to Bafang, Melong, and Douala, and another going to Bangangte, Bafia, and Yaoundé; cars at the Gare Routière), and one going west (which passes through Foumbot and Foumban before making its way into the West Adamawa; cars available at Carrefour Total).

Buy

There are two major supermarchés in Bafoussam: Le Point Plus, located at Rond Point Biao, and Sim-Delices, located on the south side of Bafoussam (tell a taxi Sim-Delices; it's across from the PMUC building). Marchés A and B are mostly unremarkable, with your normal collection of local groceries, Chinese-imported goods, and African fabric.

Eat

Like most Cameroonian cities, there are vendors walking around selling munchies like peanuts ("ground nuts"), slices of coconut, beignets, or cookies. There are also some vendors with "carts" selling fresh fruit like slices of pineapple or papaya. Keep an eye out for spaghetti omelette carts (visible because of their stack of egg crates). They're cheap (500 FCFA for three eggs and spaghetti in bread) and nutritious.

If none of those options appeal to you, you can also check out the supermarkets/bakeries, which sometimes have "sandwiches" or other pre-made food. In particular the Boulangerie du Peuple has a pretty good (no-cheese, no-meat) "pizza" for 400 FCFA per "slice". Sim-Delice sells both bread and cold cuts and you can ask them to assemble the two if you like.

Akwa is the name of a quartier which is right next to Rond Point Biao, and there are often women there braising fish, chicken, or soya (beef brochettes). There is also a long building made of an old shipping container, painted the colors and motifs of Jadida Butter. It has been "divided" into a series of "greasy spoon" type spaces where individual chefs prepare omelettes and salads.