PARAKOU

town and administrative capital of Borgou province, central Benin (formerly Dahomey), West Africa. It is the terminus of the so-called BeninNiger Railway, which was originally planned to extend to the Niger River. The railway runs northward from Cotonou, Benin's major port and commercial centre on the Gulf of Guinea, to Parakou, whence goods must be transported by road to the navigable Niger River and into landlocked Niger. Pop. (1982 est.) 65,945.