SUMMARY

The Kotoko trace their origins back to the Sao people, early inhabitants of the Lake Chad area. They are of Muslim faith since they converted from traditional beliefs in the beginning of the 16th century. The Kotoko ethnicity is not a unified group, but rather a congregation of small fortified city states in northern Cameroon and southern Chad. Fishing and agriculture are the main sources of income, but also taxation of neighbouring villages for fishing, transportation and land rights are sources of income for the Kotoko people. They do not have a common language; their lingual status is described as several different dialects, some of which are markedly different from each other. A figure estimated in 1991 put the number of Kotoko people at 23 000 dispersed in northern Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad.

There has not been a pronounced leader of the Kotoko people, neither has there been any patronage by any ethnic or religious group. The Kotoko have not had any direct support by more organised groups, such as governments, they are however well represented in the Cameroonian bureaucracy since they were recruited by French colonizers to work within the State apparatus. The Kotoko people are still today well represented within the Cameroonian administrative sector.

The Kotoko have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP-organised violence