The Lagwan Speaking Kotoko are one of many Muslim ethnic groups in Northeast Nigeria, in this case in Borno State, who have suffered greatly for a decade as militants kill, kidnap, and burn their villages. The Lagwan Kotoko are Muslim, but to the militants, not Muslim enough. Even the refugee camps they flee to have had killings, burning and kidnappings. Many suffer from severe hunger, medical problems, extreme poverty, and the entire host of problems faced by refugees. Northeast Nigeria is only part of a much greater regional tragedy, with millions of refugees and IDP’s in the countries surrounding lake Chad and beyond in a belt from Sudan to Mali. Every village in the former area where the Lagwan Kotoko lived in Nigeria, and beyond, has been burned, along with surrounding forests and cropland. The area is now a “haunt of jackals and desert owls”.

There is little information about where the Nigerian Lagwan Kotoko survivors fled to. The situation changes constantly, but as of 2024 we know: There are definitely a few hundred across the border in Cameroon in the Lagwan Kotoko area there, and in a refugee camp south of Mokoto, Cameroon. There are scores of refugee/IDP camps and makeshift settlements throughout Borno and neighboring Adamawa and Yolo states in Nigeria. There are over 100,000 Nigerian refugees in Diffa and Boso Departments in far southeast Niger, and over 10,000 near lake Chad in Chad. This is one refugee camp each in these regions of Niger and Chad. Certainly there are Lagwan Kotoko in these places. It is possible that some have also resettled to large Nigerian cities with large refugee/IDP populations like Lagos, Ibadan, Onitsha and Port Harcourt. But these city refugees are considered “invisible” and there is no information on what people groups are there or where they are in these cities.

The Nigerian army has recently gained ground against the militants. All the official IDP camps in Maidaguri, the capital of Borno State, have been closed, and the Nigerian government is resettling refugees in areas they fled from, but the “settlers’” livelihoods and security are not guaranteed. If ever the Lagwan Kotoko needed the hands, feet, heart and voice of Jesus, it is now, if they could be found in the areas they’ve been scattered to.

Scripture Prayers for the Kotoko, Afade in Nigeria.