September 15 (EUROPA PRESS) –
At least 41 people have died in a boat accident in the town of Gummi in Nigeria’s Zamfara state on Saturday as the occupants of the boat were returning to their farms, The Punch newspaper reported, citing witnesses to the tragedy.
The ship was carrying 53 people at the time of the incident and only a dozen of the occupants were rescued alive, including the captain of the ship, which “capped over and sank in the river with all the passengers,” the same sources said.
Gummi local government representative Alhaji Na’Allah Musa told The Punch that the boat was overloaded and that while “the captain did his best to reduce the number” of passengers, “no one wanted to be left behind” so “the captain had no choice but to leave.”
Na’Allah said that “the boat capsized while moving and sank in the river due to overloading.” “Only four of the passengers managed to swim out of the river, while rescue teams managed to save others,” he added.
However, the Gummi representative has clarified that he cannot “say exactly the number of dead” because the search for missing passengers is still ongoing.
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