Police and local authorities confirmed on June 13 that at least 103 people had drowned in Kwara state, located in north-central Nigeria, after a boat carrying families returning from a wedding sank in a river.
This is the latest boat tragedy in Nigeria, where river boat capsizings are common due to overloading, lax safety regulations and heavy flooding during the rainy season.
“So far, we have recovered 103 dead and over 100 people have been rescued from the boat capsized accident. Search and rescue operations are still ongoing, meaning the death toll is likely to rise,” Kwara state police spokesman Okasanmi Ajayi said.
Meanwhile, the Kwara State Governor's Office said the victims were returning from a wedding in Patigi district of Kwara State.
Currently, the cause of the boat capsize has not been announced by Nigerian authorities.
Due to poor road infrastructure and the prevalence of kidnapping for ransom along some highways, riverboat travel for transport and trade is common in Nigeria. The Niger River, West Africa's main waterway, runs in a crescent shape through Guinea to Nigeria's Niger Delta and is a key inland trade route for several countries.
Nigeria's National Inland Waterways Authority has tried to stop nighttime river travel to end the risk of accidents and made overloading illegal, but captains and crews often ignore these rules.
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