Maroua is the big city of northern Cameroon and, in normal times, one of the country's most distinctive towns: the Sahelian capital of the Far North, with its sandy avenues shaded by neem trees, its mud-brick houses, its large leather-craft market and its Muslim atmosphere. For decades it was the base for organising safaris to Waza park and trips to the spectacular Mandara Mountains and the village of Rhumsiki.
But today Maroua cannot be visited safely. It lies in the Far North Region, severely affected by insecurity linked to the terrorist group Boko Haram, active in the Lake Chad basin since the early 2010s. Governments around the world advise against any travel to the region because of the risk of attacks, kidnappings and armed assaults. This guide describes Maroua for its historical and cultural value, but with a clear warning: for now, it is not a destination you can go to.
In these pages we explain what Maroua is and what it stands for: its Sahelian character, its leather craft and its great market, its historical role as the capital of the north and base for tourism in the region, the culture of the peoples of the Far North, and the context of the insecurity that makes it inaccessible today. It is a way to get to know a fascinating Cameroonian city and to understand why, for the time being, you have to do so from a distance and always check the official advice before making any plans.
Maroua grew as an important commercial and political centre of northern Cameroon, within the orbit of the Fulani kingdoms and emirates that brought Islam to the Cameroonian Sahel in the 19th century after the jihad of Usman dan Fodio. Under German and then French rule it became established as the administrative capital of the north, and in the 20th century it turned into the main base for tourism in the Far North, famous for its leather craft. Since the early 2010s, the Boko Haram insurgency has plunged the region into insecurity. The full story is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Sahelian Cameroon: the legacy of Kanem-Bornu and the Fulani sultanates, the elephant savannah of Waza and the lunar peaks of Rhumsiki, now hit by Boko Haram insecurity.
Read the history of The Far North: savannah and mountains →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Maroua stands in Cameroon's Far North, right in the Sahel, the semi-arid band of transition between the Sahara Desert and the savannahs to the south that crosses Africa from west to east. It is a world radically different from the country's humid, forested south: plains of dry savannah, intense heat, a seasonal river (the Mayo Kaliao) and, on the horizon, the first foothills of the Mandara Mountains. The borders with Chad and Nigeria are close by, and Lake Chad is not far away.
This region is an extraordinary mosaic of peoples. The plains are dominated by the Fulani (or Peuls), Muslim herders whose language, Fulfulde, serves as the lingua franca across the north. The Mandara Mountains are home to the terrace farmers (Mafa, Kapsiki and others), many of them animist or Christian, who resisted Islamisation for centuries. Alongside them, the Kotoko, Mandara, Mousgoum (famous for their 'obus' mud houses), Toupouri and many more make up one of the most humanly diverse regions of Central Africa.
Maroua, in the Diamaré department, gradually took shape as the great urban centre of this Cameroonian Sahel: a meeting point of peoples, religions and trade routes, and the capital of a region of porous borders where trade, herding and farming have organised life for centuries.
The modern history of northern Cameroon was shaped by the great Fulani jihad of the early 19th century. From 1804, the religious reformer Usman dan Fodio led a jihad in what is now northern Nigeria that founded the vast Sokoto Caliphate and spread Islam and Fulani power across much of the western and central Sahel. Sokoto's vassal emirates expanded eastwards, reaching northern Cameroon, where the Adamawa Emirate (or 'lamidate') was established, centred on Yola, along with a network of local 'lamidates'.
In this context, Fulani populations Islamised much of the northern Cameroonian plains, subjugating or displacing many peoples and establishing their political and religious dominance. Maroua and the Diamaré region fell within the orbit of this Muslim Fulani world, with its 'lamibe' (traditional rulers), its mosques and its Sahelian culture. The peoples of the Mandara Mountains, by contrast, took refuge in the highlands and largely preserved their beliefs and their independence.
This pattern (Muslim Fulani on the plains, more diverse peoples in the mountains) still defines the identity of the Far North today and explains the strongly Islamic, Sahelian character of Maroua, so different from the rest of Cameroon.
When Europeans arrived in the late 19th century, northern Cameroon was part of this world of Fulani emirates. Germany, which established the protectorate of Kamerun in 1884, gradually pushed into the north and subdued the 'lamibe', often keeping them on as intermediaries in its system of indirect rule. After Germany's defeat in the First World War, northern Cameroon came under French administration, as a League of Nations mandate.
The French continued to govern the north through the traditional rulers and developed infrastructure, schools and the cotton economy, which would become a major crop in the region. Maroua grew as the administrative and commercial centre of the Far North, making the most of its strategic position near the borders and its role as a hub of Sahelian routes.
After Cameroon's independence in 1960, Maroua established itself as the capital of the Far North Region and the main city of the country's north. Its population grew rapidly, and the city cemented its reputation for crafts (above all its red leather), its great market and its role as the gateway to the landscapes and cultures of northern Cameroon.
For much of the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st, Maroua enjoyed a heyday as the tourist capital of northern Cameroon. The city was the logistical base for some of the country's most impressive experiences: safaris in Waza National Park, the most famous in Cameroon, with elephants, giraffes, antelopes and lions on the Sahelian savannah; trips into the spectacular Mandara Mountains, with their volcanic landscapes and villages of terrace farmers; and visits to Rhumsiki, the village with a lunar landscape famous for its sharp peaks and its crab sorcerer.
Maroua offered travellers its Sahelian atmosphere (sandy avenues under neem trees, adobe houses, mosques), its great market and its leather crafts, and served as a starting point and a place to rest between outings to the park and the mountains. Together with northern Cameroon as a whole, it was one of the country's most highly rated destinations, appealing to those looking for nature, cultures and landscapes off Africa's most beaten tracks.
That golden age rested on the region's relative stability. But in the early 2010s, an external factor, the jihadist insurgency of Boko Haram, which emerged in neighbouring north-eastern Nigeria, would bring that era to an abrupt end and plunge the Far North into a serious security crisis.
From 2013-2014, the insurgency of Boko Haram, the jihadist group that emerged in north-eastern Nigeria, spread to the neighbouring countries of the Lake Chad basin, including Cameroon's Far North. The region became the scene of armed attacks, suicide bombings, raids on villages and, above all, kidnappings, including of foreigners. A defining episode was the 2013 kidnapping of a French family in northern Cameroon, which marked the abrupt end of tourism in the region.
The impact was devastating. Waza National Park came to a standstill and was abandoned, trips to the Mandara Mountains and Rhumsiki stopped, and Maroua, the regional capital, went from a lively tourist base to a city marked by insecurity, with military checkpoints, restrictions and a battered economy. The crisis also triggered a serious humanitarian emergency, with hundreds of thousands of displaced people and refugees in the region and along the border with Nigeria.
Today, although the security forces of Cameroon and its neighbours are fighting the insurgency, the threat persists (Boko Haram and its offshoot ISWAP remain active), and all major governments advise against any travel to the Far North. This guide describes Maroua for its historical and cultural value and in the hope that security will one day allow tourism in the north to recover. In the meantime, caution comes first: follow official travel advice and do not plan any trip to the region while the threat lasts. Always check the official advice before making any plans.
