Yaoundé [key], city (1990 est. pop. 750,000), capital of Cameroon. It is the country's administrative, financial, and communications center. Manufactures include cigarettes, dairy products, clay and glass goods, and lumber. Yaoundé is a regional trade center for coffee, cacao, copra, sugarcane, and rubber. The city is at a highway junction and is on Cameroon's main railroad. Yaoundé was founded in 1888 by German traders as a base for tapping the ivory trade. It was occupied by Belgian troops during World War I and after the war was (except for 1940–46) the capital of French Cameroon. Yaoundé is the site of the Univ. of Yaoundé, which includes schools of teaching and agriculture. The city has many other educational and research institutes, including a school of administration and law and a school of journalism.
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