- Search Continues For Missing Passengers
AT LEAST 41 people, many of them children, have died after an overloaded boat capsized on the Goronyo River in Sokoto State, while rescue teams continue searching for those still missing.
The incident occurred near Gorau Community in Goronyo LGA as passengers were travelling to rice farms for the harvest. The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) said the boat was carrying about 82 people, including a community leader, when it overturned.
NIWA’s Sokoto Area Manager, Abdulkadir Yusuf, told the News Agency of Nigeria on Thursday that 11 people had been rescued and reunited with their families, while the search for additional survivors and missing passengers was still under way. He said bodies recovered from the river had been buried in different communities.
A Reuters report, quoting eyewitnesses, put the death toll higher, with one witness saying 53 people had died and another eyewitness reporting seeing 50 bodies at a community mosque in Gorau before burial.
The differing figures reflected the continuing recovery operation and the difficulty of establishing the final toll while searches remained under way.
Yusuf said the passengers had been travelling to a rice farm for harvesting and attributed the accident to negligence, overloading of the canoe and violations of established safety regulations.
Local residents also said the vessel was carrying farm owners and labourers and that more than 70 people had been aboard.
The scale of the loss was particularly devastating for families in the affected communities. Yusuf said about 40 children were among the bodies recovered.
A lawmaker representing the area in the Sokoto State House of Assembly, Nasiru Adamu, said many of those on board were between 10 and 15 years old and confirmed that 16 people had initially been rescued.
Emergency response teams from NIWA, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), the Red Cross Society and local volunteers were deployed to the scene to assist with rescue and recovery operations.
The accident has renewed concerns over recurring boat disasters on waterways in Nigeria, where overcrowding, inadequate safety measures, poor maintenance and weak enforcement of regulations have contributed to repeated loss of life, particularly during the rainy season.
NIWA said it had continued to engage communities living along waterways on safe boating practices, including compliance with passenger limits, adherence to navigation guidelines and the use of life jackets. Despite those efforts, accidents have continued to occur along the Sokoto-Rima River, with incidents reportedly recorded almost every year.
The latest tragedy follows another deadly boat accident in northern Nigeria. In January, at least 25 people were killed after a leaking boat capsized in Yobe State.
Authorities are expected to provide further information as the search operation continues and the number of missing passengers becomes clearer.
