In a chilling escalation of human–wildlife conflict, at least one resident has been trampled to death by hippos driven from their watery refuge by unprecedented flooding in Guyuk and Shelleng Local Government Areas of Adamawa State.
The victim, whose name has yet to be released, was attacked as the hulking beasts roamed farmlands and homesteads in search of sanctuary—a grim reminder of nature’s wrath and governance failures.
Local government chairman Mr Shalom Kassa delivered the tragic news on Monday in Banjiram, confirming the first fatality since the Kiri Dam overflow forced scores of hippopotamuses into villages and fields scattered along the Gongola River.
“This is a serious threat to human lives and livelihoods,” he warned, noting that the marauding animals have already destroyed groundnut, cowpea and maize plantations—crops vital to the region’s economy and food security.
The scale of the crisis is startling. Scientific surveys estimate over 100 hippos inhabit the Kiri Dam reservoir alone, and such flood‑driven migrations have historically been lethal: one fatality recorded at Baban Daba in August 2022, and unverified reports suggest further deaths since the dam’s completion in 1982.
Between 2012 and 2017, surveys documented multiple clashes, yet no robust mitigation plan has ever been enforced.
A 2023 study of 371 farmers in rural Adamawa revealed extensive economic damage—sweet potato farms suffered losses exceeding ₦2 million, with cowpea and maize fields slashed by hippo herds at mid‑growth stage.
For already impoverished communities, such losses are catastrophic, compounding the miseries wrought by flooding that displaced over 20,000 people and submerged nearly 29,000 hectares in 2015 alone.
In a rare united front, the chairmen of Guyuk and Shelleng LGAs, alongside traditional ruler the Kwandi Nunguraya of Guyuk, have petitioned Governor Ahmadu Fintiri’s administration for urgent intervention.
“Existing wildlife protection laws hamstring us; we cannot harm these hippos, yet they wreck our crops and kill our people,” lamented Alhaji Abubakar Abba of Shelleng.
The delegation appealed to the state Ministry of Environment, wildlife officials and federal agencies to deploy relocation teams, reinforce riverbanks and fast‑track community education on coexisting with protected species.
State Secretary Mr Awwal Tukur pledged swift action, assuring that “no stone will be left unturned” to stave off further bloodshed and property damage.
Yet with flood forecasts predicting continued high discharge and hippo numbers undiminished, residents remain barricaded in fear, their nightly vigil disturbed by guttural grunts and crashing vegetation.
As Adamawa reels from this unprecedented wildlife onslaught, critics accuse the government of playing catch‑up to a crisis years in the making.
Without a decisive, well‑funded strategy, more lives—and livelihoods—are set to be swallowed by the very waters meant to sustain them.
