Kousséri is a city of north Cameroun at the edge of the river Logone, which makes the border with the Chad. In the past Fort-Foureau at the time colonial, it is today chief town of the department of the Logone-and-Chari, province of the Extreme North. It is a significant market, in particular for the exchanges with the close Chad.

History

Kousseri is a very old city, going back at least to Sao civilization (11th - 16th century). Its current name is of Arab origin ( Qussur : castles). At the 16th century it was the capital of a kingdom whose elites at least were Islamized, and mentioned in the Italian form Uncusciuri by Lorenzo d' Anania. This kingdom was vassal Royaume of Kanem-Bornou.

Taken by the army of Rabah Fadlallah (or Rabih Zubaïr) at the end of the 19th century, it was the theater of the Bataille of Kousséri (April 22nd 1900) where the French troops of the Commander Lamy, allied with the Baguirmi ens, beat Rabah. The two chiefs found death during the combat. In the colonial division which followed, the city of Kousséri was allotted to Germany before passing under the control of the French after the First World War. It was famous Fort-Foureau. After the independence of Cameroun, it found its historical name of Kousséri.

Originally city of Kotokos and cosmopolitan city today, it accommodates many ethnos groups: Bornouans, Arabs-Choas and even of the close natives of Chad, attracted by this quiet vicinity which offers the occasion to them to make deals and, for those which have of them sufficiently the means, to build or buy second home. Located on the border with Chad from which it is separated by the Logone river, it accommodated during the Chad-Libya war of thousands of Chadian refugees who fled Ndjamena.