The Kotoko of Cameroon

The Kotoko of Cameroon, numbering approximately 25,000 people, are No Longer Unreached. They are a Chadic river people of Cameroon's Logone basin whose Lagwan-speaking kingdom once assimilated smaller states including Kousseri, Logone-Birni, Makari, and Mara before converting to Islam and being absorbed into the Bornu Empire in the 19th century. They mostly adhere to Folk Islam and Lagwan is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 2.5 Flash: Kotoko

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Sub-Saharan African Peoples
Country: Cameroon
People Cluster: Chadic
Primary Language(s): Lagwan (kot)
Primary Religion(s): Folk Islam
Population: 25,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): No Longer Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): 10% or Greater Evangelical
People Group ID: PG012650
View on Joshua Project

Pray for the Kotoko of Cameroon

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Folk Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

90%
%
Folk Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Lagwan
Language Family: Afro-Asiatic

100%
%
Lagwan Speakers

Media Resources in Lagwan:

Films:

No film resources are listed for this language.

Bible Resources in Lagwan:

No Bible resources are listed for this language.

Or check out the Lagwan bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

SPI: No longer Unreached

The Kotoko are No Longer Unreached, which means there are more than 2% evangelical Christian populations and there are churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice. There is still more to be done among them.

Next steps for the Kotoko:
Empower local believers to begin praying for their own people
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting
Encourage local leaders to being leading church planting strategy and looking for Unreached and Unengaged groups nearby

Pray specifically for the Kotoko of Cameroon

For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
readPsalm 96:5

Pray that those who are seeking after worthless idols will not be satisfied until they seek the truth and find it in Christ.

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.
readMatthew 13:8-9

Pray that they will have open hearts and minds to the Word of God, and that it will take root in their lives and bear fruit for His glory.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
read2 Corinthians 5:17

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will understand and experience the truth that in Christ, they are a new creation, and the old has gone and the new has come.

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go.
readLuke 10:1

Ask God to raise up, send out, and sustain Christians who can go together to share the good news of Jesus with those who need it.

Kotoko-Logone Across Countries (ROP3 - 105271) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

2 people groups

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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