At least 29 people have been killed by gunmen in northeastern Nigeria, the governor said on Monday. According to witnesses, the attackers targeted young people gathered on a football field. It is the latest episode in a series of deadly violence in Africa's most populous country. In Adamawa State, bordering Cameroon, violence is regularly perpetrated by jihadists and local criminal gangs.

Published on: 04/28/2026 - 09:45

Gunmen killed at least 29 people in Adamawa state, in northeastern Nigeria, the state governor announced Monday (April 27), with residents saying the attackers targeted young people gathered on a football field.

Adamawa State has become a hotbed of violence, fueled by both jihadist groups and local criminal gangs commonly known as "bandits". Community clashes linked to land conflicts are also widespread.

This latest attack, which took place on Sunday afternoon, comes as the security crisis in Nigeria is the subject of increasing attention, both abroad – notably in the United States – and at home, less than a year before general elections.

“Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has confirmed that at least 29 people were killed in a deadly attack on Guyaku community in Gombi Local Government Area,” his aide said in a social media post.

According to residents interviewed by AFP, including Philip Agabus, the armed men “fired randomly”. "After the attackers left, we rushed to the scene and found that many people were shot and injured and others were dead. A total of 29 people were killed," he added.

The armed men killed "young people, including young women who were watching football", according to another resident, Joshua Usman. “They also burned places of worship, houses and motorbikes,” he added.

Read alsoRecruitment, aviation and American aid: how Nigeria is stepping up the fight against terrorism

Local television channels broadcast images of a burned church and several charred motorcycles.

The governor blamed members of the jihadist group Boko Haram, active in northeastern Nigeria.

But a rival group, the Islamic State in West Africa (Iswap), claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it had "killed at least 25" Christians and burned down a church and nearly 100 motorcycles.

ISWAP and Boko Haram

Another attack occurred on Sunday in another administrative area more than 100 kilometers southwest away, which the local community attributed to intercommunal clashes linked to land conflicts in several villages in the Lamurde region.

“Lives have been lost, property has also been destroyed,” Bulus Daniel, president of the local council in the Lamurde region, told AFP.

Boko Haram and Iswap have recently intensified their attacks on communities and military bases in northeastern Nigeria, causing the deaths of several civilians and soldiers, including senior army officers.

Jihadists have been leading an armed insurgency in this region for 17 years.

Nigeria is faced with multiple conflicts, which, in addition to jihadist insurgencies, involve criminal gangs, violence between farmers and herders, and even separatist movements.

The police denounce increasing fatigue as well as a lack of suitable equipment.

Insecurity in Africa's most populous country has become a subject of interest for the United States, whose President Donald Trump says Nigeria's Christians are victims of a "genocide."

Also read: In Nigeria, endemic violence “which does not only target Christians”

Abuja and the majority of experts firmly deny that Christians are specifically targeted, the violence generally affecting Christians and Muslims indifferently.

At Christmas, the American army, in coordination with the Nigerian authorities, carried out strikes in Sokoto State, targeting, according to it, Iswap jihadists.

Since then, military cooperation between the two countries has strengthened.

With AFP

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