Travel Guide Ouesso

Seen from the air, a simple clearing smothered by vast forests, but in reality the hub of the north of the country, an agro-forestry capital, a host town for Cameroonians in search of a better life or a small business, a port town. Ouesso is trying to break out of its isolation: far from the capital, in the heart of the forest, at the end of a northern road that is sometimes no more than a broken path. The town in the background seems to be self-sufficient, radiating throughout the region and beyond the Congolese borders. Ouesso is red like the laterite, and green like the forest that sustains it. Ouesso lies on the banks of the Sangha River, and the timber convoys that travel up the river and then across the Congo end up in Brazzaville. The orange-red mud bricks made near the port, with which most of the houses are built, give Ouesso a recognizable color and identity. The city is a gateway to and from the Congo, and many of the manufactured consumer goods found here come from Cameroon. Accelerated Municipalisation", the government's policy of major works, has not yet come to pass, but there are already signs of the city's revaluation. The huge BEAC building now stands at the end of its main boulevard, and it's a striking contrast to see this air-conditioned fortress at night, in a city whose infrastructure and buildings are mostly inherited from the colonial period.