A BOAT carrying 39 passengers has capsized in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The incident which happened on Saturday claimed the lives of 13 individuals.
Confirming the incident on Sunday, the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA), said 26 people were successfully rescued.
In a statement, NSEMA’s Deputy Public Relations Officer, Malik Baba Suleiman, said the dead victims have been buried according to Islamic rites.
He said the agency’s search and rescue operation, which began immediately after the incident, led to the recovery of all 13 bodies.
Among the deceased were eight women, three men, and two children.
Though the identities of the victims are yet to be released, but the incident has since thrown the community into a state of mourning.
The ill-fated boat, which was reportedly overloaded with goods and passengers, capsized near Guni village around 11:45 a.m. while en route to Zumba. It is believed that the mishap was caused by water turbulence and possible overloading, though investigations are still ongoing.
The Niger State Government, through NSEMA, has warned river users to observe safety guidelines and avoid overcrowding boats, especially during the rainy season when water levels rise unpredictably.
The incident is the latest in a series of boat mishaps that have plagued riverine communities in Niger State, prompting calls for urgent government intervention and improved water transport safety measures.
In November 2024, at least 27 people died when a boat capsized on the Niger River in central Nigeria.
The boat was carrying about 200 passengers from the state of Kogi to a food market in the neighbouring state of Niger when it capsized late on November 29, with more than half reportedly missing, according to Ibrahim Audu, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency.
Rescuers had managed to pull 27 bodies from the river while local divers were still searching for the missing passengers, according to the spokesperson for the Kogi State Emergency Services, Sandra Musa.
The previous month, dozens of people were feared dead after a boat capsized in north-central Nigeria.
The boat was ferrying more than 300 passengers on the River Niger when it overturned on October 3, said Niger State Emergency Management Agency (Nsema) head Abdullahi Baba Arah.
Almost exactly a year earlier, another 29 children from a nearby village also drowned in the same river as they were on a trip to collect firewood for their families.
During massive flooding in the rainy season last December, at least 76 people drowned when their boat went down in a swollen river in southeastern Anambra State.
With poor road infrastructure a frequent problem and kidnapping for ransom a major issue along some highways, river boat travel for transport and trade is common in Nigeria.
The Niger River is West Africa’s main waterway running in a crescent through Guinea to Nigeria’s Niger Delta and is a key trade route for some countries.
Nigeria’s National Inland Waterways Authority has tried to ban night-time sailing on rivers to stop accidents and says overloading ships is a criminal offence, but skippers and crews often ignore the regulations.