- Tragedy on the River Niger
- Perils of Transportation on the Niger River
- Mourning and Calls for Safety Measures
A survivor tells that many parents who drowned earlier this week when a canoe capsized on the River Niger in central Nigeria were attempting to save their children.
Mohammed Alhassan, 22 years old, was among the approximately 300 passengers on the overcrowded wooden canoe in Patigi, Kwara State.
Numerous individuals were returning from a ceremony. Mr. Alhassan, however, was returning from the market.
He demonstrates no emotion as he returns to the riverbank where he was able to swim to safety.
The tide is low when I meet him. The river is calm, and his focus is on the horizon.
As he recalls the parents who perished along with their children, including his sister and her eight-year-old son, however, he is overcome with emotion.
“The women remained behind carrying their children; some of them had three or four.”
“There were also fathers who died trying to save their children in the same manner,” he says.
He claims he would have perished if he had also attempted to save them.
As he swam to safety, he witnessed the harrowing scene of parents drowning alongside their children as they attempted to save them.
He is grateful to have survived but is still traumatized by witnessing the deaths of so many people, particularly children.
On Monday, the wooden boat carrying approximately 300 passengers capsized, authorities said.
In some areas, crossing Niger, Nigeria’s longest river, can be hazardous. The wooden boats are frequently overcrowded, there are insufficient life jackets, and a portion of the voyage is made in the dark, so accidents are common, particularly between April and October during the rainy season.
The majority of incidents occur in the central state of Niger and neighboring regions. In the state of Kebbi three years ago, at least fifty persons perished when their boat capsized.
In October of last year, 76 people perished in boating accidents in Kano in the north, Lagos and Anambra in the south, and Anambra State in the east.
Despite the hazards, for many communities living along the Niger River, this is their only means of transportation.
The majority of them, including Mr. Alhassan, have made the trip numerous times in the past.
He recalls being seated at the front of the boat this time.
Some of the children fell off in their parent’s arms and were carried on board as the boat departed in the dark just before 3:00 GMT.
He says that five minutes after their departure, he heard a loud crack that divided the boat in half.
According to the police, the boat capsized after a portion of the vessel collapsed and caused flooding. However, the Emir of Patigi, the traditional leader of the region, told journalists that river waves overtook the canoe and caused it to collide with a tree that had washed into the river.
In Ebo, a village in the state of Kwara that lost 61 people in the tragedy, a large number of young survivors have congregated beneath the largest tree in the center of the village.
On a different day, they might have been discussing a football game or teasing one another, but they are currently in mourning.
Some of them were on the boat and managed to swim to safety, but they will never forget the horror of seeing friends, relatives, and strangers they had met at the loading port drown.
The close-by resident Aisha Mohammed was not on the boat, but her three daughters were.
She had bid them farewell as they traveled to the wedding, eagerly anticipating the day when wedding guests would visit her home. She explains in the local Nupe language that all three daughters were scheduled to marry this year.
“We are all in mourning over this tragic event, and we only pray that Allah will ease our suffering,” says Liman Umar, the local chief.
“In our community, we perform tasks collectively. When we rejoice, we do so together, and now that this has occurred, none of us are sleeping,” he says.
Coordinating the rescue efforts and relaying information from the divers to the emir, he is no longer responsible for these duties.
Locals claim that they have experienced torrential rainfall over the past few days but have received no assistance from the government in their search for survivors.
Their leaders are waiting for missing corpses to float to the river’s surface so they can retrieve them.
Many say that some Niger boats cruise at night to avoid police, and passengers often don’t wear life jackets.
Abdul Gana, a local leader from nearby Kpada, which lost four individuals in the disaster, thinks this must change.
“We want the government to intervene and provide protective equipment for the public whenever they use boats.”
He claims our people prefer the Niger since there are no highways to neighbouring communities.
The governor of the state, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, visited the community to express his condolences.
He discussed supplying 1,000 life jackets to the community to increase their safety while traveling.
There was also mention of harsher penalties for those who disobey safety regulations.
As he left, the Niger banks were full of wooden boats and passengers without life vests.
There is a feeling that it will take some time for the life jackets to reach, but like the tide on the Niger, life must continue.
