Amnesty International Nigeria on Thursday ramped up pressure on the federal government by releasing the photograph of a woman allegedly killed by soldiers, demanding a “full, transparent and impartial investigation” into the use of lethal force during a protest in Adamawa State earlier this week.
The global rights organization identified the victim as Mary Talmon, stating she was one of nine women reportedly slain on Monday, December 8, 2025, when troops opened fire on demonstrators in the Lamorde Local Government Area.
The protest was reportedly staged by local women demanding stronger government intervention to halt persistent, deadly communal clashes plaguing the region. Witnesses claim the women were unarmed and protesting peacefully at the time of the incident.
Amnesty International condemned the alleged shooting and issued a stringent call for immediate accountability from Abuja.
”The Nigerian authorities must transparently and impartially investigate this alleged horrific use of excessive force by the military,” the organization stated in a release.
The group further broadened its criticism, pointing to what it called the inadequate handling of the underlying tensions between the Bachama and Chobo communities whose clashes have fueled instability for months.
”The Nigerian authorities’ response to the communal violence between Bachama and Chobo tribes is totally inadequate, too slow and ineffective,” the statement read.
Amnesty added that official responses to the violence have repeatedly fallen short. It noted that security agencies have often arrived late to scenes of violence, and in instances where they did intervene, such as the event in Lamorde, their actions allegedly escalated the situation.
The group stressed that in such cases, security forces “use excessive or unlawful force resulting in even more deaths and destruction.”
