Rescue workers in northwestern Nigeria are battling time and turbulent waters after a crowded boat capsized in Sokoto State on Sunday. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) reported the vessel was carrying more than 50 passengers to a local market when tragedy struck.
Authorities confirmed that 10 survivors have been pulled from the water, while over 40 others remain missing, feared drowned. The agency noted that boat mishaps are frequent across Nigeria’s waterways, where poor regulation, overcrowding, and fragile vessels create recurring disasters.
Such accidents intensify during the rainy season, when swollen rivers and lakes test the limits of wooden and poorly maintained boats. Sokoto State itself has witnessed deadly scenes before, including the August 2024 tragedy when 16 farmers drowned en route to their rice fields.
In July, six girls died after a boat overturned midstream in neighbouring Jigawa State while returning from a day of farm work. Just days earlier, 13 lives were lost in central Niger State, where another vessel succumbed to treacherous currents and fragile construction.
These repeated calamities underscore a haunting reality: Nigeria’s inland waters often serve as pathways to commerce, but also gateways to peril. Officials say search operations in Sokoto continue, with local divers and emergency teams combing the swollen river for signs of life.
Grieving families wait along the riverbank, clinging to faint hope while the current carries fragments of livelihoods and echoes of past disasters. The latest accident adds to Nigeria’s growing toll of maritime tragedies, pressing urgent questions on safety, oversight, and the fragility of daily survival.
