The town was founded as Kuka in 1814 by Shehu Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi of the Bornu Empire.

[1] The town was the end of one of the main trans-Saharan trade routes to Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast.

Hundreds of Kukawa citizens were held hostage by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in August 2020.

Two million people in Borno have been displaced from their homes over the past ten years; many live in squalid conditions in Maiduguri.

[8][9] Heat waves, extreme weather, and rising temperatures are caused by climate change, although its effects are not uniform worldwide.