Father-of-six Adam* has been abducted twice by Boko Haram militants in Cameroon.
VIDEO SCRIPT
Adam
We have faced a lot of difficulties for being Christians. They keep coming to attack. Everyone is in despair, and we keep fleeing because there’s no peace.
In Cameroon’s Far North region. Boko Haram attacks anyone who opposes their extremist views and often takes Christians captive. The women are then usually raped or forcibly married off, while men risk being enslaved, forcibly converted to Islam, or killed.
Father of six Adam was abducted in 2022 and held for a month and a half and then kidnapped again at the start of 2024.
Adam
I got to move, but someone said open the door. They were shouting open up, open up me! And they had already captured my older brother. They found him in his room. They took him and tied him up.
They also took a neighbor’s husband. They took him and shot him on the spot. Only eight of us were left, so they took us to the bush. They shot my little brother. We were scared. We thought we were going to die. But they didn’t kill us because they kept moving deeper and deeper into the bush.
Adam and the others were taken to a camp where they were locked up in fenced enclosures, with a guard posted outside the bus.
Adam
They didn’t like us Christians, so we had to pray in our hearts and worship in our hearts in such a way that they couldn’t notice the end of us.
They asked us, why have you not yet converted to Islam? Because you’re in a Muslim territory. If you were a Muslim, you would not be tortured. You’d live in. And then came was to that. Sometimes they told someone to dig a hole, tied him up, put him there and shot him. Those things were really dreadful, demeaning. They brought us red garments.
That meant the time had come for us to be brought to the hole and killed. But I refused to wear them because I didn’t believe that I would die there.
So Adam remained resilient in his faith and trusted God for his future.
Adam
I remember one night we were praying and fasting in that camp. We asking Jesus to save us from their hands.
At a certain time, they said that they were going to bed. They went in front of the door. They lay down with their guns and fell asleep. But they had left the door of the cell open. I went out and checked and even touched them. But they were fast asleep. So I told my brothers that we could leave.
The Lord had done the miracle and we were free.
The group had to swim across a river and walk through the bush for a whole day to escape. Adam was reunited with his family, but they were displaced from their previous home, and Adam felt deeply troubled by his experiences at the hands of Boko Haram.
Adam
Afterwards, if I lay down, I would dream of them coming to kidnap me. I couldn’t get a good sleep.
Thankfully, Open Doors local partners intervened in autumn 2024, providing Bibles, trauma counseling and food aid.
Adam
You taught us how to forgive. You asked me how many people I hadn’t forgiven in my heart. I said, two people.
These people were like stones in our heart. We tried to run with the stones and you told us we could be free and have peace if we forgave them. So I forgave them, and I no longer have that weight in my heart. We need prayers. We need you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord God will provide help for us.
That he will make a way for us where there is no way.
People Interviewed and their Titles
Adam – name changed for security reasons.
Recording Location
Cameroon
Organization featured in this Story
Open Doors UK – www.opendoorsuk.org
EN 
ES