Semira Adamu
Twenty year old Nigerian woman killed in Belgium. · Nigeria · On the map · Activists · Lived 1978 to 1998 · aged 20
Semira Precious Adamu was a 20-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker who was suffocated to death by two Belgian police officers on a aeroplane in Brussels, Belgium, during her forced deportation on September 22, 1998.
Semira Adamu is read about 21 times a day, in 10 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 30 October 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 98 days, one point a day.
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The police officers recorded video footage of themselves exchanging jokes as they pushed her head deep into a pillow for 20 minutes with her hands and ankles handcuffed; during which Adamu had stopped breathing for 7 to 8 minutes. She died in the St Luc Hospital later the same day at 9:32pm. When the court asked why so much force was used, one of the officers said that it was necessary "to avoid disturbing other passengers".