On Tuesday, new demonstrations broke out in Adamawa State’s Numan Local Government Area (LGA) to seek 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 due to an increase in communal conflicts between the Bachama and Chobo groups on Monday.
According to reports, a group of women organized a demonstration in Lamurde, accusing the military of a biased and delayed involvement that allegedly favored the Chobo community, which caused the crisis to take a deadly turn.
The women apparently tried to obstruct army operations 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 in the hospital, bringing the total number of civilian deaths to seven.
Eleven other victims were injured to varying degrees and are presently being treated at Numan General Hospital. The number of casualties is anticipated to increase.
The Nigerian Army claimed that the deaths were caused by inexperienced local militias mishandling firearms, despite the demonstrators’ insistence that the army was to blame.
In response, the Adamawa State Government deployed security personnel to enforce a 24-hour curfew in Lamurde.
Some of the women’s remains were transported to Lamurde for interment.
Humwapwa Nanso, Bwalason Samson, and Wisdom Christopher were among the demonstrators who said that security forces’ slow response caused the violence to worsen.
“Our women were killed by uniformed personnel, leaving us with grief in our hearts,” Nanso stated. Since everyone has the right to life under the Nigerian Constitution, we ladies demand that the government uphold our rights.
“Those who shot this bullet I am holding stopped the car, stopped the truck, and 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. Five persons were found dead after more than twenty people were shot on the spot. We were just clutching leaves; nobody had any weapons.
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