At least 54 bodies have now been recovered from Nigeria’s River Niger after a boat, that may have been carrying more than 200 passengers, capsized in the early hours of Friday, the authorities say.
Twenty-four of those on board were rescued, some of whom are still in hospital, but dozens of others may be missing.
Divers are still searching the waters but hope is fading on the possibility of finding more survivors.
This is just the latest in a long series of boat accidents on the country’s inland waterways. Despite safety recommendations being made, rules are rarely followed and few are held accountable.
The boat was travelling from Kogi state, central Nigeria, to a weekly market in neighbouring Niger state when it went down.
Market traders and farm labourers were thought to have been among the passengers.
The cause of the accident is not yet known but there are indications that many of the travellers may not have been wearing life jackets as required.
Getting accurate details about who exactly had boarded the boat is difficult because there was no record keeping, the local official in charge told the BBC.
“The problem is that there’s no passenger manifest and because of the time the accident occurred, giving an accurate account of persons, survivors and those missing, is very difficult,” Justin Uche, who is head of the Kogi state office of the National Emergency Management Agency said.
Meanwhile Kogi state’s governor Usman Ododo ordered all hospitals where survivors are receiving treatment to ensure that they get adequate care including food.
He also urged stricter enforcement of safety regulations to ensure that such incidents are avoided in future.
This is the third time a passenger boat has gone down in Nigeria in the last 60 days.
Last month, a wooden dugout canoe, packed with nearly 300 passengers, overturned and sank in the middle of the River Niger killing nearly 200 people.
Just last week, five people died when two boats collided in southern Nigeria’s Delta state.
Some 200 passengers were taking the boat across the river — which acts as a border between the states of Kogi and Niger — to a food market when it capsized, Ibrahim Audu, the Niger State Emergency Management Agency spokesperson said. None of the passengers were wearing life jackets.
The final toll is likely to increase, Kogi state authorities warned, as local divers were still looking for the missing and no survivor was found 12 hours after the incident.
"It's not clear what caused the accident," Sandra Musa, spokesperson of the Kogi State Emergency Management Agency said.
"It could be from turbulence or from the boat hitting a snag. Boat operators don't usually have life jackets, so none of the bodies recovered had life jackets on," she said. Musa added that the age of the boat might have played a role.
Local media reported that the boat was overcrowded.
The Niger River reaches a width of more than 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet) in this part of its course. Authorities said rescuers had trouble finding the location of the boat for several hours after the incident occurred.
Drownings from overloaded, capsized boats are common in remote parts of Nigeria where there is a lack of good roads for transport.Hundreds of people have been killed in similar incidents in recent years.
In June 2023, over 100 people diedwhen a boat carrying around 250 people sank in the state of Kwara.
The country's authorities have tried but struggled to implement safety measures such as the use of life jackets, regular boat maintenance and refraining from onboarding people above capacity.
