Oku

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Facade of the palace of the King of Oku, recreated in 1980 for the Linden Museum Stuttgart

Oku is a mountain range in the Bamenda highlands , in the Cameroonian province of North-Ouest . The inhabitants of the mountains and their language are also called Oku.

The mountain region is best known as a volcanic field , which, in addition to the 3,011 m high Mount Kilum (also known as Mount Oku), contains several cinder cones and maars , of which Lake Manoun and Lake Nyos are the most famous. The highest lake in the mountains, the Oku Lake , is less well known . This is only a few kilometers from the summit of Kilum. The mountain range of the Oku Mountains has a base diameter of approx. 100 kilometers and is part of the volcanic chain of the Cameroon Line . In the southwest of the Oku Mountains, the Bamenda Mountains join, which are a connection to the Bambouto massif .

The highest mountain rainforests in West and Central Africa are in the Oku Mountains . These are dominated by the tree species Carapa procera , Schefflera abyssinica , Schefflera mannii and Syzygium guineense bamendae . The tree species Podocarpus latifolius can also be found in the higher regions of the mountains and, from approx. 2600 meters above sea level, there are also extensive bamboo forests . These rainforests are under nature protection as Kilum-Ijim Forest Conservation Area from 2200 meters above sea level .

The region attracted international attention with the Nyos tragedy on August 21, 1986, in which a gas eruption caused large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) to escape from the crater lake, killing around 1700 residents of the surrounding villages.

The next larger city already outside the region is Bamenda .

Web links

Commons : Oku  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 6 ° 11 ′ 59 ″  N , 10 ° 31 ′ 7 ″  E