Originally domesticated in the southern rim of Amazonia, cassava was introduced into Africa by Portuguese in the 16th century at the Congo Estuary and quickly adopted and spread by African populations. Cassava is now a major staple crop for the Central African region. However its productivity is low and farmers face major constraints including recent devastating pandemics of viral diseases. Faced with this difficult situation, PRASAC and Institutes from the six CEMAC countries developed a regional project funded by EU for sustainable cassava production adapted to local markets (2011-2015). One of the project goals is to improve the knowledge of local genetic resources. For this purpose 753 accessions were collected among five countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon and Tchad. The sampled accessions were analyzed using SSR markers together with 38 American varieties selected for their geographical diversity. Despite their considerably lower representation the American accessions displayed a higher number of specific alleles. Nevertheless and despite the bottle- neck following their introduction, the African accessions reached high levels of genetic diversity. Although African farmers generally report a strictly vegetative propagation, it is highly probable that sexual reproduction played a major role in the diversification of cassava in Central Africa.