Greater than 100 individuals died, together with many who had been coming back from a marriage ceremony, after a river boat transporting them capsized within the early hours of Monday in Nigeria, in line with residents and the native police.
The boat was crusing on the Niger River within the western state of Kwara, in line with a police spokesman, Okasanmi Ajayi, who mentioned that greater than 100 individuals had been rescued and that the search was ongoing.
“The boat capsized in full darkness and it wasn’t till hours later that we had been alerted,” Mr. Ajayi mentioned. The loss of life toll stood at 103 as of Tuesday night and was more likely to rise, he added.
River boat accidents are a recurring difficulty in Nigeria, a West African nation the place overloading, lax security rules, the absence of life jackets and poor upkeep typically result in lethal incidents. Nighttime crusing is outlawed throughout the nation, however the ban stays poorly enforced.
The authorities had but to find out the reason for the accident on Monday, Mr. Ajayi mentioned. Among the many victims had been a number of households, together with kids, in line with testimonies from native residents.
Ibrahim Hassan, a resident of the village of Ebbu, the place most of the marriage ceremony visitors had been from, mentioned the realm skilled heavy rainfall on Monday. One household that Mr. Hassan is aware of misplaced seven kids, with two others nonetheless lacking as of Tuesday evening, he mentioned in a phone interview.
“We misplaced lots of people, together with ladies and kids,” Mr. Hassan added. “Our group won’t ever be the identical once more.”
Nigerians typically flip to river transport as a substitute for poorly maintained roads, particularly through the wet season.
The two,600-mile-long Niger, the primary river in West Africa, acts as a key regional commerce route, originating far to the west in Guinea and flowing in an enormous arc northeast into the Sahel, then southeast and at last south, discharging into the Atlantic by means of the Niger Delta, in southeastern Nigeria. It’s Africa’s third-longest river, after the Nile and the Congo.
Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, the governor of Kwara State, mentioned in a press release that the boat had carried individuals from a number of states, nevertheless it remained unclear whether or not the entire passengers had been attending the marriage ceremony.
In Could 2021, at the least 160 individuals died in a ship accident in roughly the identical space on the Niger River. In Could of this yr, at the least 15 kids died after a ship capsized within the northwestern state of Sokoto.
