16 Die in Boat Accident While Escaping Bandits’ Attack in Niger

By Laleye Dipo in Minna
No fewer than 16 villagers are feared to have died when the boat in which they were traveling capsized on River Kaduna on Wednesday morning.
The deceased were among several others reported to be escaping from terrorists attacks in Munya local government area of the state.
The villagers were in three wooden boats heading towards Zumba town in Shiroro local government area when the accident occurred at Bodo village in Guni ward of the local government area.
An eyewitness told THISDAY that  gunmen numbering over 100 had invaded Sayita village, making the villagers to look for escape routes and as a result they decided to go to Zumba by the river using 3 wooden boats.
At a stage during the journey it was learnt that one of the boats conveying no less than 30 passengers hit the rock making it to capsize.
Those in the other boats  according to the eyewitness struggled to rescue the passengers in the capsized  boat but were only able to save the lives of 14 of the  passengers.
He said while other travelers were trying to bury the remains of the deceased they sighted the bandits approaching so they abandoned the corpses and took to their heels.
 The head of the local divers in Zumba popularly called ” Sarkin Jirgi” told THISDAY that 8 corpses, 6 of them children and 2 adult women, have so far been recovered from the river.
When contacted, the Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, NSEMA, Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Inga confirmed the incident saying: “Search and rescue operations have begun”.
Inga said: “For now we cannot say the number of people that died we can also not say how many people were in the boats until after our investigations”.