Fifteen children drowned and 25 others are missing after their boat sank on a river in northwestern Nigeria’s Sokoto state on Tuesday, a local official told AFP on Wednesday.
The children from Dundeji village were fetching firewood from the bush across the Shagari River when their overloaded boat capsized, said Aliyu Abubakar, Shagari District Administrator who oversaw the rescue operation.
“Fifteen bodies, 13 girls and two boys, were found by local rescue teams and buried in the village,” he said, adding that divers continued to search the river for the bodies of 25 other missing children Tuesday night.
“We were told there were about 40 children on board, so 25 of them are still missing,” Abubakar said.
The children in the village crossed the river every morning to get firewood, which they sold to the village and neighboring communities to supplement their families’ meager incomes, Abubakar said.
Sokoto State is a remote rural region in northwestern Nigeria and one of the poorest. Like the rest of Nigeria, boat accidents are common there. They are often related to ship congestion, excessive speed, poor maintenance and non-compliance with shipping rules.