Kidnappings in Cameroon's Far North region have more than doubled in a year. For energy and infrastructure teams working in the north, the biggest risk is not a dramatic attack but a predictable routine.
What the numbers say
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) counted 308 people abducted by armed groups in the Far North between April and June 2026, against 141 in the same quarter of 2025, a rise of 118%. Most victims are local farmers, traders and herders taken for ransom, but aid workers and contractors have also been taken in recent years.
The Far North sits between Nigeria and Chad, where Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have been active for more than a decade. But they are no longer the only kidnappers. Research by the Institute for Security Studies has tracked criminal networks in the North and Far North that copy jihadist methods and target anyone who looks able to pay.
Three things that matter most for project teams
- Kidnap is a business as well as an insurgent tactic. Criminal groups weigh up who can pay and how easy they are to reach. Foreign staff, contractors and local employees of international companies all fit that picture.
- Predictability is the biggest risk. The same route, the same hotel, the same driver and the same day of the week make a team easy to plan against.
- Information leaks before people do. Visits announced in WhatsApp groups, on site noticeboards or by word of mouth reach the wrong ears quickly.
What works
The projects that keep working in the region treat every journey as a plan, not a trip:
- Approved routes, varied where possible, and movement in daylight only.
- Vetted drivers and a licensed local security provider who knows the ground.
- Visit details shared only with the people who need them, and kept off group chats.
- Set check-in times and someone awake at the other end who will act if one is missed.
- Travel tracking with geofences that reflect the current risk picture, and a plan for what happens when an alert fires.
None of this stops work. Done well, it lets engineers and managers keep visiting sites that many companies have stopped going to.
Talk to us
Martello supports renewable energy teams with travel planning, local provider coordination and 24/7 response across northern Cameroon and the Lake Chad region. If your team is travelling north of Garoua, we are happy to compare notes.