At a minimum, 32 individuals lost their lives when an overloaded boat toppled after it came into contact with a partially sunken tree stump on the River Niger, located in Nigeria’s Niger state, on Tuesday morning.
There had been about 100 passengers on the watercraft, which was said to have been full of women and children. They were going to a nearby village to pay respects to the family of a person who had recently passed away.
This happened on the River Niger in Niger State, and the boat with 100 people on board was said to be traveling to a village to pay tribute to a deceased person’s family, including women and children.
More than 50 people were rescued, and eight are still unaccounted for, said Abdullahi Baba Ara, spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency in the state, to BBC Hausa. Rescue work is still underway. The local district head Sa’adu Inuwa Muhammad informed Reuters that till Wednesday afternoon, 31 bodies had been retrieved from the river.
As per Ara, the government had put in place water marshals to stop the boat operators from overloading and to ensure passengers wore safety jackets. He affirmed that the process of investigation into the tragic event has already been initiated. Boat crashes happen very often in Nigeria, and the primary causes are overloading, less strict regulation and poor safety measures.
The Niger State is the biggest state in Nigeria in terms of area, and water transport has been the main mode of travel because it is more time-saving and cheaper.
After a few accidents, the National Inland Water Ways Authority came up with these campaigns; “No Life Jacket, No Travel” and “No Night Travelling” that were implemented in the Niger and Kwara states.
