Top 10 Volcanoes in Cameroon
The Cameroon Volcanic Line is a strange and beautiful feature: a chain of volcanoes that runs from the island of Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea inland through Cameroon and on into Lake Chad. It does not follow a plate boundary; it sits at an angle to the African Plate and is most likely fed by a deep mantle source. Eruptions still happen, and lakes in its craters have killed people in modern memory.
1. Mount Cameroon (Mongo ma Ndemi)
The country's high point at 4,040 m, and West Africa's most active volcano. The 1999 and 2000 eruptions opened fissures on the south flank. Climbed in three to four days from Buea, with thick forest at the base and a bare lava-rubble summit.
2. Lake Nyos
A maar — a crater carved by a violent steam explosion — that famously released a cloud of CO₂ in 1986 and killed more than 1,700 people in the valleys below. Now degassed via vertical pipes installed in the 1990s and 2000s. Visited only with guides.
3. Lake Monoun
A smaller maar that also produced a limnic eruption (a sudden release of dissolved CO₂) in 1984, killing 37. Like Nyos, it is now actively degassed.
4. Manengouba
A twin-caldera volcano in the south-west with two crater lakes — Lac Mâle and Lac Femelle — and montane forest on the slopes. A weekend trekking destination from Bafoussam.
5. Mount Bambouto
A high volcanic massif on the Bamenda Highlands, important for the tea-growing economy of north-west Cameroon. The cooler montane climate on the volcanic plateau is the engine of the region's agriculture.
6. Mount Oku
A 3,011-m volcano near Bamenda, with the deep crater lake of Lake Oku at 2,200 m — a sacred site for the local communities, with no boating allowed.
7. Tchabal Mbabo
A massif in the Adamaoua region, eroded into rolling pastures and plateau lakes. The volcanism here is older, with no Holocene activity.
8. Pico Basilé (Bioko, Equatorial Guinea)
The northernmost end of the chain, on the island of Bioko just offshore. A 3,012-m stratovolcano, still considered potentially active. Visible from the Cameroonian coast on clear days.
9. Etinde
A small volcanic plug on the southern flank of Mount Cameroon, geologically older. Climbed as a half-day alternative when Mount Cameroon itself is closed by weather or activity.
10. Ngaoundéré Plateau
The Adamaoua volcanic highlands of central Cameroon — a plateau of basaltic flows, eroded cones and Lakes Tison and Mbalang. Older than the coastal volcanoes but unmistakably part of the same line.
How the line works
The Cameroon Volcanic Line stretches about 1,600 km from offshore islands (Annobón, São Tomé, Príncipe, Bioko) through Cameroon to Lake Chad. The mantle source feeding it is debated, but its activity is real: Mount Cameroon erupts roughly every twenty years, and the maar lakes can recharge with CO₂ if degassing pipes are not maintained.
Safety and access
Mount Cameroon is climbed under guide arrangements via Buea's Mount Cameroon Eco-Tourism office. Lake Nyos can be visited but only with permits and respect — the surrounding villages are still affected by the 1986 disaster. North-west and south-west political situations sometimes restrict travel.
On the map
Open the map and filter to Cameroon to see the volcanic line running from the coast into the interior — a single, deep-seated feature rising through the country.