Surrender of the Banyo Fortress

The Banyo fortress, the last German strongpoint in western Cameroon, was stormed by French troops under Major Ribes. After several weeks of reconnaissance and military pressure, German forces, understrength and demoralized, surrendered. This operation completed Allied colonial conquest of Cameroon.

During the Cameroon campaign, after the surrender of Garoua (11 June 1915) and the advance of Franco-British columns southward, the Banyo region was reached in early November 1915. In 1916, the Allies converged on Yaoundé, which capitulated on 1 January, while France sought to stabilize the entire territory.

Allied advance in northwestern Cameroon proceeded along narrow mountain paths, favoring ambushes and fortified positions on high ground. Assaults combined flanking of outer posts, artillery pressure on the heights, and night harassment, in terrain where the German defense used grenades and entrenched positions.

The Cameroon campaign ended with the surrender of the Mora garrison on 20 February 1916, the last German stronghold. In February 1916, France and the United Kingdom agreed to partition the territory along the Picot line; the Treaty of Versailles (1919) turned the former colony into League of Nations mandates, French Cameroon and British Cameroon.