The Benue River (French: la Bénoué) is a long river in Africa , the main tributary of the Niger River . The length of the river is approximately 1400 km and it is navigable almost entirely during the summer months, making it an important transport route for the regions it crosses.
It is born in the Adamawa plateau in the north of Cameroon , in the Northern Region and goes northwest. After receiving the King River on the right, you will find the Lagdo reservoir and then the town of Garoua, where it turns sharply west to head for Nigeria . In this country, it passes to the south of the Mandara massif , and passes through Jimeta , Ibi and Makurdi before meeting with the Niger in the city of Lokoja , south of the capital, Abuja .
The major tributaries are the Gongola River (531 km) and the Mayo Kébbi , which connects it with the Logone River (part of the Lake Chad system ) during floods. Other important tributaries are the Rio Faro (Benue) , Rio Taraba , Rio Donge and the Rio Katsina Ala (320 km).
At the confluence point the Benue surpasses the Niger in volume (average discharge before 1960: 3,400 m³ / s versus 2,500 m³ / s). During the following decades, river runoff decreased markedly due to irrigation.
