More than 100 people are missing in Nigeria after a boat carrying mostly women and children capsized in Niger State in the country’s north, authorities have said.
The locally made wooden boat, with a capacity of 100 passengers, had about 300 people on board when it overturned in the rural Mokwa district, an emergency official said on Wednesday.
The passengers were returning from an Islamic religious festival when the incident occurred.
Rescue workers and volunteers from the Mokwa local government area had rescued 150 people, Babah-Arah said early on Wednesday.
The boat had been traveling from Mundi to Gbajibo for the Annual Maulud celebration when the accident happened, both the local government and NSEMA officials said.
This would be the second such major disaster in Niger State in 18 months after more than 100 people were killed in another boat accident.
Experts say most of the boat disasters in Nigeria in recent years increasingly point to regulatory failures and are often attributed to overloading or poorly maintained boats.
