Yaoundé residents work to preserve green spaces as the city expands

The Sansasyonel - International (English) · Oct 25, 2026 · 1m

Green areas in Yaoundé are shrinking as the city grows. In the Essos district, a public park was razed and is now a private car park, leaving resident Sosthène Hugues Ngono mourning a place where he used to socialize and clear his head. A University of Yaoundé study found the city grew from nearly 33 square miles in 1984 to 181 square miles in 2024. Over the same period, wooded areas fell from 28.6 percent to 5.4 percent of the city’s land cover. The United Nations put Yaoundé’s population at 5.1 million in 2025. Cameroon’s housing ministry estimated a national deficit of 2.5 million units in…