Amnesty International (AI) on Monday accused the Nigerian Army of opening fire on protesters, killing nine women. The Nigerian Army denied the accusation and blamed the deaths on a “local militia.”
According to AI and eyewitnesses who spoke to the Associated Press (AP), the women were protesting against the army’s poor handling of tribal battles in the northeastern state of Adamawa.
The Daily Trust of Nigeria said the issue was mounting tensions between two communities called the Bachama and Chobo, two ethnic groups indigenous to the Lamurde Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State. The LGA is essentially a county, one of 21 such subdivisions in Adamawa, centered around a town called Lamurde.
On Sunday, a group of heavily armed men attacked several villages in the LGA, prompting the Adamawa state government to impose a curfew. The Bachama claim they were the victims of the attack, and the Chobo were the perpetrators. The two tribes have been feuding for several months.
Eyewitnesses to the attacks on Sunday said the assailants were suspiciously well-equipped with military-grade weapons. The local police deployed additional officers to enforce the curfew and maintain peace, but the Bachama wanted the Nigerian Army to intervene and disarm the attackers.
The women who assembled to protest on Monday were Bachama who felt the army was at best negligent in handling the situation, and at worst could be biased in favor of the Chobo, perhaps to the point of arming the Chobo raiders with military equipment.
The protest blocked a road in Lamurde, and when a group of Nigerian Army soldiers was unable to get past the protest blockade, they allegedly opened fire with live rounds.
“It shows that the Nigerian military has not changed much because of its past record of human rights violations and disregard for rule of law,” said Amnesty International Nigeria director Lisa Sanusi.
AI said it confirmed the account of soldiers firing on protesters by interviewing eyewitnesses and family members of the victims. The AP said it was not able to independently confirm the Amnesty report.
The Daily Trust also reported Nigerian Army soldiers did the shooting.
“They came out peacefully, carrying leaves, begging for security, instead, they were met with live gunfire,” said Chief Agoso Bamaiyi, head of the Gyawana community in the LGA.
“The wounded were rushed to Numan General Hospital, where medical officials say some remain in critical condition,” he added.
Local police officials said there were fatalities in the incident, but could not confirm how many, and were reluctant to identify the shooters as Nigerian Army troops.
The Army issued a statement on Tuesday dismissing the allegations against its forces as “baseless.”
According to Nigerian Army spokesman Olusegun Abidoye, the soldiers were assaulted by a local militia and defended themselves “neutralizing” eight militia fighters. Abidoye said the protesters were killed by fire from the militia members.
“The communal clash was as a result of the unresolved land disputes and ethnic acrimony between Chobo and Bachama tribes. Troops moved swiftly to the affected communities to return normalcy to the affected areas,” Abidoye said.
“Without equivocation, the casualties were caused by the unprofessional handling of automatic weapons by the local militias who are not proficiently trained to handle such automatic weapons,” he said.
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