Parakou

Parakou is the largest city in northern Benin and the country's third largest overall, in Borgou Department. Traders founded the settlement in the 16th century, and it came under the authority of rulers from Nikki before gaining greater independence after the failed 1837 Nikki-led invasion of Ilorin, with the 1898 Anglo-French Convention making Parakou the administrative center of the portion of Borgu joined to French Dahomey. Its population was 255,478 at the 2013 census. Parakou is a major cotton trading hub with a railway link to Cotonou, home to the University of Parakou, and a proposed site for an inland port serving regional West African trade.