An overloaded boat carrying 180 people sank today in northwestern Nigeria, in the state of Kebi, and local authorities believe more than 150 of the passengers were dead.
The wooden boat capsized near Wara, a town on the shores of Lake Kainji, which is part of the Niger River, according to Yahaya Sakri, a spokesman for the Kebi governor.
The passengers were returning from neighboring Niger.
“We are still retrieving corpses. “We can not say the exact number of victims,” Sakri said.
According to the local river transport manager, Yusuf Burma, 20 people have been found alive so far, four were pulled out dead and the remaining 156 missing “are believed to have drowned”.
Earlier, a survivor, Bukhari Abubakar, said dozens of passengers were missing, mostly women and children.
“The boat was overloaded. My brother is among the missing. “It’s the worst accident that has ever happened in these waters,” said Kashim Omar Uara, a resident of Uara. As he said, many passengers were returning from a gold vein recently discovered in Niger. “They usually go there in the evenings and return to Wara in the morning. “Most of them are retailers of items and food and others are local gold miners,” he added.
