Nine women have been identified and declared dead after Nigerian Army soldiers opened fire on them as they engaged in protesting the army’s handling of communal clashes in the northeastern Adamawa state.
Communal clashes in Nigeria’s northeastern Adamawa State are primarily driven by long-standing ethnic and land ownership disputes between agrarian communities, leading to tragic loss of life, mass displacement, and significant property destruction.
Reports indicate that the women were involved in the protests which began early this week along a major road in Adamawa’s local government, Lamurde, when the soldiers shot at them after being blocked from passing, witnesses and victims’ relatives told the AP in detail, first reported on Tuesday. Ten others were injured in the shooting, witnesses confirmed.
However, the Nigerian Army, in a statement, denied killing anyone and blamed the deaths on a local militia it said opened fire in the area.
Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said the agency confirmed soldiers killed the nine protesters, citing accounts from witnesses and families of victims.
“It shows that the Nigerian military has not changed much because of its past record of human rights violations and disregard for the rule of law,” according to Isa Sanusi, director of Amnesty International in Nigeria.
The Associated Press who engaged witnesses and Amnesty International’s office in Nigeria could not independently verify what happened.
