The death toll from a boat mishap at the Gorau crossing point in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto State has climbed to 53, following the recovery of additional bodies from the river, as families in the farming community continue to search for relatives still unaccounted for.
The boat capsized on Wednesday at Gorau community on the Goronyo River, carrying passengers who were mostly farmers and farm hands travelling to access their rice farms. Nasiru Adamu, a lawmaker at the Sokoto State legislature representing the area, said those on board were mostly children between the ages of 10 and 15.
Accounts of exactly how many people were aboard the vessel have varied. The National Inland Waterways Authority’s area manager in Sokoto, Abdulkadir Yusuf, said the boat was carrying about 82 people, including the community leader, who were in transit to a rice farm for harvest. A separate police account put the number at 77 passengers, including farmers, women and children. A community leader in Gorau, Usman Yusuf, said more than 80 passengers had boarded the boat. NIWA’s Yusuf attributed the disaster to negligence, overloading of the canoe, and violations of safety guidelines.
Casualty figures rose steadily throughout Thursday as rescue and recovery operations continued, with different agencies and witnesses reporting different numbers at different points in the day. NIWA’s initial count on Thursday put the toll at 41 dead and 11 rescued. Later Thursday, the Tribune reported that at least 46 bodies had been recovered and 15 passengers rescued alive, with Sokoto Police Command spokesman DSP Ahmed Rufai saying rescue teams were still searching for 16 missing passengers.
By evening, eyewitness Sharhabilu Kiliya told Reuters that 46 people had already been buried, with more bodies being brought in continuously, putting the death toll at 53. Adamu, the state lawmaker, said 16 people had been rescued from the water. Vanguard’s Friday report confirmed the toll had risen to 53 following the recovery of more bodies, up from an earlier count of 48.
A resident who lost two brothers in the accident said rescue operations were suspended on Thursday night due to darkness and difficult operating conditions, with rescuers expected to resume their search on Friday.
A Reuters witness at the scene saw 50 bodies, many wrapped in mats and traditional cloths, lying in the forecourt of a community mosque ahead of their burial in Gorau on Thursday. Resident Samaila Garba, 55, said his 13-year-old granddaughter, Jamila Usman, was among those who died in the capsizing, and that he had personally counted at least 42 bodies of victims, most of them women and children.
Another resident, Aminu Dan Hajiya, who uses the same waterway to reach his own farm, said he considered himself lucky not to have been on the boat, adding that almost every household in the community had been affected by the tragedy.
Deadly boat accidents are relatively common in Nigeria, where overcrowding, poor maintenance and weak enforcement of safety regulations often contribute to disasters on the country’s rivers and waterways, particularly during the rainy season. In January, at least 25 people died when a leaking boat capsized in Yobe State, in northeast Nigeria. Thursday’s accident also occurred almost exactly one year after a similar boat mishap in the Kijio community, within the same Goronyo Local Government Area.
The rescue operation in Gorau has involved the police, the National Emergency Management Agency, the Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency, and local divers. As of this report, the search for remaining missing passengers was expected to resume, with the final death toll still subject to revision as recovery efforts continue.
