Adamawa Boils: Protests Trail Alleged Military Killing of Women in Lamurde Clash

On Tuesday, new demonstrations broke out in Adamawa State’s Numan Local Government Area (LGA), calling for justice for women who were allegedly killed by Nigerian Army soldiers during operations to reestablish peace in the nearby Lamurde LGA.

The turmoil comes after the Adamawa State Government imposed a 24-hour curfew in Lamurde on Monday due to an increase in ethnic conflicts between the Bachama and Chobo groups.

A group of ladies reportedly held a demonstration in Lamurde, accusing the military of a biased and delayed involvement that allegedly favored the Chobo community, causing the crisis to take a tragic turn.

The women apparently tried to stop army moves into the unstable area while carrying leaves and were unarmed.

According to sources, the military opened fire on the crowd during the altercation, killing four women instantly and three more later in the hospital, bringing the total number of civilian deaths to seven.

Numan General Hospital is currently treating eleven additional victims who suffered varying degrees of injuries; the number of casualties is anticipated to increase.

The Nigerian Army claimed that the deaths were caused by inexperienced local militias mishandling weapons, despite the demonstrators’ insistence that the army was to blame.

The Adamawa State Government responded by enforcing a 24-hour curfew in Lamurde and using security personnel to ensure adherence.

Some of the women’s corpses were transported to Lamurde for burial.

Humwapwa Nanso, Bwalason Samson, and Wisdom Christopher were among the demonstrators who said that security personnel’s slow response caused the violence to worsen.

“Uniformed personnel killed our women, leaving us with grief in our hearts,” Nanso stated. Since everyone has the right to life under the Nigerian Constitution, we ladies urge the government to defend our rights.

“I have never seen military personnel go down on their knees, aim at unarmed women at close range, and fire bullets so rapidly,” Samson continued. “Those who shot this bullet I am holding stopped the car, stopped the truck.” Five of the more than 20 people who were immediately shot were dead. We were just carrying leaves; nobody had any weapons.