‘Please pray for me’—a grieving mother’s plea in Cameroon

Médéké will never forget May 31, 2023.

It was the last day she saw her 10-year-old son Joseph. During an attack on her Christian village in Cameroon’s volatile Far North region by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram, Joseph was taken.

“I can never forget that day,” says Médéké, a 40-something mom of five children.

Her family lived in Goldavie village when Joseph was taken. The third-oldest sibling, Joseph always sat with his father every evening as the family waited to eat their evening meal. Joseph was in his usual place when the gunshots rang out.

“He sat on his father’s leg. I could hear them laughing while looking at my husband’s phone,” Médéké remembers. “It did not take long for the Boko Haram men to surround the village and start with the gunshots.”

No one saw the men coming, but the sound of gunshots was enough to know they had to run away. In the Far North region, Boko Haram attacks repeatedly. The villagers know to run to the surrounding mountains to hide.

“So, I started running to the mountain,” she says. With tears in her eyes, Médéké shared what happened next.

“When I turned around, I saw Joseph holding my husband’s hand running to the mountain.

A neighbor explained that he saw [Joseph] run back home, shouting his father’s name everywhere, but when [the neighbor] tried to tell [Joseph] to run, one of the [attackers] carried him away.

“I came down from the mountain and waited for all my children to come back with my husband, but Joseph did not come back. I even thought he was with a neighbor. That's when another neighbor came and told us he was kidnapped.”

Cameroon’s ‘Red Zone’

For Christians in Cameroon’s Far North region, attacks and kidnappings have become commonplace—so much so that every night, some Christians leave their homes and sleep in the mountains, fearing attack by Boko Haram. The region, which borders western Nigeria where Boko Haram is also active, is so high-risk that it has been designated by security organizations as a “Red Zone.”

Open Doors reached out to Pastor Jean, who leads the area’s evangelical church in Mayo-Tsanaga. He shared that since 2014, more than 14 Christian children have been abducted by Boko Haram. As he counts the number of missing children from the various villages, the reality is sobering.

“We have three [abducted children] in Mozogo, one in Korsamba, one in Goldavie, one in Gabass, and the others, I do not know exactly … and in Kiriwa-Mafa, there were children of Christians that were kidnapped,” he says.

At least six of the 14-plus have been abducted in the past three years during separate attacks between 2022 and 2024. They’re between the ages of 7 and 18. Pastor Jean stresses that Christians are singled out.

“Since I started working in Mayo-Tsanaga in 2014, I have not heard of any Muslim children being abducted,” he says. “Every time, it's just Christian children ... .”

To date, the families have received no news, and don't even know if their children are still alive.

“We don’t know where our children are,” Pastor Jean says. “[The militants] don’t call us to ask for money [for a ransom]; they do not call to say, ‘Here are your children.’ To date, we do not know, no news, no trace of our children.”

A mother’s heartbreak

Médéké continues to wait, hoping for a ransom call about Joseph. “No one has called me,” she says. Her heartbreak is palpable: “I don't know what has become of my son. I feel so much pain whenever I think of him.”

After the attack, Médéké refused to eat for three days. “I fell sick, very sick,” she says. “The pain was unbearable, but I needed to hold on. I prayed and asked God to strengthen me.”

In her grief, she’s honest about her feelings of confusion and even abandonment.

“Sometimes I ask God, ‘What have I done for You to let them take my son away?’ But I get no response from Him. Sometimes, I wake up at night, and I weep … I can’t forget.”

Yet like David in the Psalms who shook his fist in anger at God and in the next breath praised Him, Médéké ultimately pleads: “Please pray for me!”

‘Pray for us’

She and the other parents of abducted children have reached out to our local partners, asking us if we will stand with them in prayer. Like Médéké, in their pain, they continue to hope for their child’s return.

Each of us are brothers and sisters to our family in Cameroon; we have a responsibility to pray and hope with them. Psalm 33 tells us that we don’t place our hope in human hands, but in the Lord. As God’s people, we can join our hearts and voices and let God’s people like Médéké know they’re not alone. Rather, they have a worldwide Church that is holding them tight, raising prayer for them when they can’t find the will or voice to come to God.

The situation in Cameroon is just one hotspot affecting African believers. The violence in sub-Saharan Africa is growing, and as the Church we can respond. That’s why Open Doors launched the Arise Africa joint action campaign, a multi-year initiative to stop the violence and start the healing. Our sisters and brothers in sub-Saharan Africa are asking us to pray with them.

“We want peace in our hearts, in our village, in our country,” Pastor Jean says. “Right now, we are asking for prayers, that you will pray for us.”

please pray

Please pray for Joseph and the others wherever they are, that the Lord will strengthen and comfort them. Pray they will sense that God is with them.
Pray that God will reunite these children and so many still in captivity with their families and restore them.
Pray for comfort and strength for Médéké and the families who continue to hope for their children’s return. Ask God to heal their pain and bind their wounds.
Finally, let’s pray for Boko Haram. Pray that the Lord will touch their hearts and turn them away from their evil actions.

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‘Please pray for me’—a grieving mother’s plea in Cameroon

Cameroon’s ‘Red Zone’

A mother’s heartbreak

‘Pray for us’

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