MANY passengers have been feared dead following a boat mishap in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The incident occurred on Saturday, according to the Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA).
In a statement on Sunday made available to News Point Nigeria, NSEMA’s Director of Information and Special Duties, Ibrahim Hussaini, stated that the boat, carrying an unspecified number of passengers and goods to Kwata, Zumba Market, capsized mid-river.
Hussaini noted that the boat operator and a few passengers were rescued, with one currently receiving treatment at the General Hospital in Kuta.
According to him, the number of casualties could not yet be confirmed as search and rescue operations were ongoing at the time of filing this report.
“The Agency received a report of a boat mishap which occurred yesterday. A boat loaded with commodities and an unknown number of passengers heading to Kwata Zumba market capsized along the route,” the statement read.
According to the agency, the operation was conducted by NSEMA desk officers in collaboration with local divers and volunteers.
Such river accidents are, unfortunately, common in Nigeria.
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.