Kara, Togo

Kara is a city in northern Togo and the capital of the Kara Region, about 413 kilometers north of the national capital Lome. The 2010 census recorded its population at 94,878. The Kara River, the city's main water source, flows through it, and Kara grew from the 1970s onward out of a village originally called Lama-Kara, its growth driven largely by former Togolese head of state Gnassingbe Eyadema, who was born in the nearby village of Pya and valued the city's position at a crossroads of two trade routes.