The Boko Haram insurgency in northeastern Nigeria has generated one of the most protracted security and humanitarian crises on the African continent, with Yobe State emerging as a frontline zone of sustained conflict and social devastation. While the mental health consequences of conflict have been extensively documented for civilian populations, security personnel deployed in affected communities — including military officers, police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and vigilante groups — remain a largely invisible population in both research and policy discourse. This article presents a sociological assessment of the mental health of security personnel working in Boko Haram-affected communities in Yobe State, Nigeria, drawing on a substantive body of empirical literature and organised around three interconnected sociological perspectives: institutional neglect as a social stressor; social support erosion in conflict communities; and stigma, masculinity, and help-seeking behaviour. Grounded in Pearlin’s Stress Process Model, Goffman’s theory of stigma, and the social determinants of health framework, the article argues that the mental health burden carried by security personnel in Yobe State is not reducible to individual trauma exposure but is structurally produced by the institutional arrangements that deploy them, the social fabric that surrounds them, and the cultural norms that silence them. The implications for policy, institutional reform, and future sociological research in conflict-affected settings are discussed.

Keywords: mental health, security personnel, Boko Haram, Yobe State, occupational stress, stigma, medical sociology, social determinants of health