Death toll rises past 50 after overloaded wooden vessel sinks on river near Gorau village, with dozens of bodies still being recovered Thursday evening
At least 50 people died Thursday morning when an overloaded wooden boat capsized on a river near Gorau village in Sokoto State, northwestern Nigeria. Most of the dead were children between 10 and 15 years old, according to Sokoto state legislator Nasiru Adamu. The death toll is expected to rise as search-and-recovery operations continue into the evening.
The boat was ferrying farm owners and labourers to rice fields in Goronyo Local Government Area when it went down Thursday morning, residents said. Sixteen survivors were rescued, per Adamu, while local divers continued searching the river as of Thursday evening.
The recovered dead
Abdulkadir Yusuf, Sokoto manager for the National Inland Waterways Authority, confirmed 47 dead "so far" and said approximately 40 of the recovered bodies were children. A Reuters witness saw 50 bodies laid out in the forecourt of the community mosque in Gorau. Resident Ibrahim Musa, a former councillor in Gorau, told AFP that 46 bodies had already been buried and five more had just been pulled from the river, putting the toll at 51. Eyewitness Sharhabilu Kiliya told Reuters the toll had reached 53, citing 46 burials plus additional bodies brought from the river afterward. Crisis.Zone is treating 50 as the confirmed floor, with the figure disputed above that threshold.
Resident Samaila Garba, 55, confirmed his 13-year-old granddaughter, Jamila Usman, was among the dead. "During the rainy season, most women and children go to the farm to work," Garba told AP. Accounts of the boat's capacity vary — one resident put the number aboard above 70, another at 57, while community leader Usman Yusuf told AP more than 80 had boarded.
NEMA spokesman Dahir Kure told AFP rescue teams were "at the scene of the boat accident" and had begun rescue work, but said the agency was still "collecting necessary information" and could not yet give an official death toll. Mustapha Umar, director of relief at the Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency, said officials were en route to the scene. No federal government statement had been issued as of Thursday evening.
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A community counting its dead
"Almost every household in the community has been affected," resident Aminu Dan Hajiya told AP. Mass burials were underway in Gorau on Thursday, with bodies wrapped in mats and traditional cloths outside the village mosque. The victims were not migrants or conflict refugees but farm labourers on a routine trip to rice fields — a distinction that underscores how ordinary the journey was, and how large the resulting loss.
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