 "File Photo- AFP")
Over 40 people are feared to have died after a boat overloaded with passengers sank on a river in northwestern Nigeria, authorities said on Sunday.
A local official said that a wooden boat carrying 53 farmers capsized as it was transporting them across the river to reach their farmlands close to Gummi town on Saturday morning. Local authorities swiftly mobilised residents for a rescue operation and 12 survivors were pulled from the water.
“Only 12 were rescued yesterday shortly after the accident,” said Na’Allah Musa, a political administrator of the flood-hit Gummi district where the accident happened, adding that authorities were searching for the bodies of the rest of the passengers, who are presumed to have died.
Musa added that the vessel was “crammed with passengers far beyond its capacity which caused it to overturn and sink”.
In a statement on Sunday, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu “expressed the government and the people of Nigeria’s commiseration” for the “twin tragedies” of the farmers’ deaths and the nearby floods.
In recent days, rising waters in the Gummi area have forced more than 10,000 people to flee, with Tinubu promising support for the victims.
Boat accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly regulated waterways, particularly during the rainy season when river and lakes swell.
Last month, 30 farmers on their way to their rice fields drowned after their overloaded boat sank in the Dundaye River in neighbouring Sokoto State, emergency officials said.
Three days earlier, 15 farmers died when their canoe overturned on the Gamoda River in Jigawa State, according to the police.
With inputs from agencies.