Twenty-one years after the last count, in 2005, Cameroon's fourth general census of population and housing — paired with the agriculture and livestock census — wraps up on September 15, 2026. Launched on April 24 and extended twice, the operation completed its national tour this week in Kyé-Ossi, a town in the south of the country on the border with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
On the ground, census agents carry out what they call, in the trade's jargon, a "ratissage" (sweep): a follow-up phase meant, in the words of one agent, Patrick, to "track down those who weren't identified or counted" during the first pass — door-to-door work, on appointments sometimes made days in advance and honored only sparingly.
This border area poses a specific problem, which Kyé-Ossi's sub-prefect sums up this way: "These difficulties were linked to migratory flows of people who, from time to time, for economic reasons, migrate to Equatorial Guinea or to Gabon, and vice versa. So, in effect, it becomes a practically unstable population." Regular cross-border movement for trade reasons makes the count inherently a moving target — the same residents can be found on either side of the border from one week to the next.
The follow-up sweep phase ends on September 15, but operations will continue in a limited number of so-called "red zones," where insecurity has prevented any agent deployment so far. André Mbairanodji, national coordinator of the census's agricultural component (RGAE) and spokesperson for the operation's national coordination teams, explains: "In these conflict zones we call red zones, we couldn't risk sending census agents. And there are also households where, despite government efforts, we still note some refusals. With these two operations, we will have reliable statistics."
Once these last households are covered, a post-census survey will follow to validate the collected figures. The census coordination has not released an updated national coverage rate for this final phase; final data will only be known once that consolidation is complete.
