At least 100 wedding guests are now known to have been killed in a boat disaster in Nigeria as a probe begins into the incident.
The guests drowned in North-central Nigeria after the boat carrying families returning from a wedding sank in a river.
The accident in Kwara State is the latest boat tragedy in Nigeria where boats capsizing in rivers are common.
“The boat was ferrying people in Kwara State from a wedding in neighbouring Niger State when it went down,” local police and the Kwara governor’s office has said.
“So far we have 103 people dead and over 100 rescued from the boat accident,” Kwara State police Spokesman Okasanmi Ajayi has said.
The search and rescue mission is still ongoing which means the toll is likely to rise.
The Kwara State governor’s office said the victims had been returning from a wedding ceremony to Kwara’s Patigi District.
“The governor is sad to receive reports of the boat accident involving several people, particularly residents of Ebu, Dzakan, Kpada, Kuchalu, and Sampi, all in Patigi,” the statement said.
The governor was monitoring the rescue efforts which had been underway since Monday night in search of possible survivors, it said.
Often these disasters are caused by overloading, lax safety procedures and heavy flooding in the rainy season.
Last month, 15 children drowned, and 25 others went missing after their overloaded boat capsized in northwest Sokoto State as they were on their way to collect firewood.
Almost exactly a year earlier, another 29 children from a nearby village also drowned in the same river as they were on a trip to collect firewood for their families.
Source: Africafeeds.com
