The once-thriving Mayo-Tsanaga region now lies in ruins, its villages reduced to ashes and its people scarred for life by Boko Haram’s relentless terror campaign.

Over 50 settlements abandoned, thousands displaced, and a state that has turned a blind eye to the suffering of its own citizens.

What started as a distant threat in Nigeria’s Borno State in the early 2000s has exploded into a full-blown catastrophe across Cameroon’s northern frontier. By 2014, Boko Haram’s insurgency had crossed borders, with the first Cameroonian attack striking the remote village of Tourou, nestled near the 35km stretch from Mokolo. The mount Gossi, a strategic hideout, became their stronghold.

Since then, the terror group has wreaked havoc unchecked. Schools, health centers, farms, and markets—no target is spared. Homes are torched, lives are stolen, women are violated, and the land is left barren. For nearly thirteen years, the people of Mayo-Tsanaga have endured this nightmare, while the response from authorities remains woefully inadequate.

a landscape of abandonment and despair

The once-vibrant villages of Mayo-Tsanaga now stand empty, their former inhabitants scattered like ghosts. More than 50 communities—Gossi, Tourou, Vizik, Ldamang, Magoumaz, and many others—have been deserted, either partially or entirely. The scale of this exodus is staggering. From Mokolo to Koza, and deep into Mayo-Moskota, terror has left behind a wasteland where families once thrived.

In May 2022, the fifth deputy mayor of Mokolo, Mahadek Nicolo Nouhou, delivered a stark warning to the Minister of Public Health, Manaouda Malachie, during the Fraternal Encounters in Tourou and Mokolo. His report was chilling: ten villages abandoned, two under Boko Haram’s control, and seven more under constant siege. Places like Gossi, Toufou 1, Toufou 2, Roum, and Hitawa have become no-go zones, their residents fleeing in terror.

living in fear: a community on the brink

The terror doesn’t end with daylight. As darkness falls, the people of Mayo-Tsanaga flee to the mountains, seeking refuge in caves shared with snakes and other dangers. They return at dawn to till their fields, only to face the same cycle of violence. Schools stand empty, businesses collapse, and hope erodes with each passing day.

The Cameroonian military’s presence is a cruel joke—a handful of soldiers deployed to villages like Ldamang and Ldubam, where two troops were all that stood between terror and total annihilation during a brutal June 2026 attack. Villagers armed with nothing but machetes and sticks are left to fend off heavily armed militants. The message is clear: the state has abandoned them.

the silence of the powerful

The elite of Mayo-Tsanaga—administrators, politicians, and influencers—remain conspicuously silent as their people burn. They make grand speeches during election campaigns, but when Tourou burns or Koza mourns its dead, they vanish into the shadows of indifference. Their silence is not an oversight; it is a calculated political choice. Ministers have visited, made speeches, and held