Kumbo, also known as Kimbo, is the second-largest city in the North West Province of Cameroon and the capital of Bui Division. It lies about 2000m above sea level and is situated approximately 110 km away from Bamenda, on the Bamenda Highlands Ring Road. Kumbo has a population of 80,212 and is split into three distinctive hilly settlements of Tobin, Mbveh, and Squares. The town is known for horse racing and traditional medicine, and also for its palace, a market and two hospitals. Kumbo is the capital city of the Nso Kingdom of the Nso people. The lingua franca is Lamnso but Pidgin, English, Oku, Djottin, Fulfulde, French and Hausa are spoken.

The Anglophone Crisis, also known as the Ambazonia War or the Cameroonian Civil War, is an ongoing armed conflict in Cameroon's English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions between Cameroon Armed Forces and Ambazonian separatist groups, part of the long-standing Anglophone problem. Following the suppression of 2016–17 protests by Cameroonian authorities, separatists in the Anglophone regions launched a guerrilla campaign and later proclaimed independence. Within two months, the government of Cameroon declared war on the separatists and sent its army into the Anglophone regions.