KOUSSÉRI, Far North Region of Cameroon

Kousséri is a town in the Far North region of Cameroon. It lies on the border with TChad, across the Chari River from the Tchadian town of N'Djamena. It is the administrative town of the Logone-and-Chari division. As a market town, its population stands at about 89,000 inhabtants due to the influx of refugees from neighboring countries.

The town Kousséri was part of the Bornu Empire. History holds that in about 1846 Omar (i.e the son of Sheik Mohammed), nominal general of the Bornu sultan Ibrahim, suffered a defeat in this town. In about 1900 it was occupied by soldiers of Rabij az-Zubayr, he was a Sudanese warlord.

Then on March 3 it was taken over by the combined forces of two French expeditions from Algeria and Senegal. Rabih was not in Kousseri at the time but established himself in a fort on the right bank of the Chari river. Lamy too, did not think he had sufficient forces to attack Rabih immediately, so he waited until the beginning of April and was joined by a third expedition that was coming up the Chari river led by Emile Gentil. He arrived the combined forces, crossed the Chari river and attacked Rabih. The battle of Kousséri secured French rule over Chad.