Many feared dead in another Nigeria boat disaster but why do they keep happening? ohammed lost three daughters in a boat disaster which killed over 100 people in Kwara state three years agoByMansur Abubakar, Reporting fromAbuja and Chukwunaeme Obiejesi, BBC PidginPublished20 July 2026The pattern has now become wearily familiar in Nigeria.Many die in a boat accident; officials say the regulations should be followed; their calls are ignored; campaigners say the resources are not available; another tragedy happens.This time, a search-and-rescue team is looking for survivors of a capsized wooden canoe in Jigawa state.Forty were thought to be on board, mostly female farmers and labourers, when it sank on Sunday. Twenty-three people have been rescued alive but nine bodies have been recovered from the river so far.Last month, a boat accident on the River Benue in central Nigeria claimed the lives of 12 people, including a pregnant woman and six children.Earlier this year, 14 people lost their lives when their boat capsized in Gumbi, Kebbi state. They had been returning from a wedding ceremony, accompanying the bride to her new husband's home.So far this year, more than 55 people have already lost their lives in boat accidents, with dozens of bodies yet to be recovered.For millions of Nigerians, particularly in rural areas, rivers are the most practical means of transport.
With many villages on or close to waterways and few bridges and poor roads to aid travel, rickety wooden boats are often the only way for people to reach family members elsewhere, to take goods to market, or to see the outside world.For people like Isiyaka Bello, the painful memory of losing someone to water is still fresh. Last year, his wife was returning from a village market in Kebbi state when she and eight others lost their lives."It seems like just yesterday. She left behind four children, and I am still struggling to adjust to raising them on my own."Whenever I pass by a large body of water, all I think about is her," he said.The reasons why water transport in Nigeria is so risky are painfully predictable:OvercrowdingUnsafe boatsFailure to enforce basic safety rules like wearing life jackets.After every disaster, authorities promise to do better.
But on the water there is little, if any, change.Mallam Sala Altine holds a traditional title that carries the weight of life and death on the river. He is the Sarkin Ruwan Shiroro - the man entrusted with keeping people safe on the Shiroro Lake in Niger state, where some of Nigeria's deadliest boat tragedies have occurred.The River Niger, the third-longest in Africa, passes through the state with which it shares a name, where it is fed by numerous smaller rivers and connected waterways, creating an environment where fatal accidents are both frequent and severe.Between January 2023 and October 2025, Niger state accounted for a significant share of the nearly 860 deaths recorded across Nigeria. One report noted 253 deaths in the state between June 2023 and August 2025.Altine says there is a critical shortage of life jackets despite repeated government promises to supply them."Our boats usually carry well over 100 passengers.
But most of the time, we can only provide life jackets for 10 people, or even fewer, because we simply don't have enough," he explains."We want to make it a rule that everyone who boards a boat must wear a life jacket. But we can't enforce it because we don't have any to give them."He says that after one accident which claimed around 13 lives, the government pledged to supply more life jackets."But I don't know if the numbers were cut along the way, because what we eventually received was very little."Altine says it breaks his heart to see passengers boarding boats without any protection. ria's passenger boats have been in use for many yearsAs one local observer puts it: "These are not acts of fate. They are the predictable consequences of systemic negligence."However, Ibrahim Husseini, director of information at the National Emergency Management Agency of Niger state, says the government regularly provides life jackets, but that people who have spent their whole lives by the water say they don't need them, or find them uncomfortable."We have people who are born and raised in riverine communities who take it for granted that this is the life they are used to," he told the BBC.
"Sometimes it is difficult to force them to wear life jackets."In riverine communities, whereas a high proportion of men often know how to swim, few women do, meaning they are particularly at risk if a boat capsizes. And yet it is often women who attend big family events such as weddings, or who take goods to market.After a particularly deadly accident last year in Niger state, in which at least 32 passengers died, the National Inland Waterways Authority (Niwa) announced that life jackets were obligatory throughout the country.In an attempt to stop vessels picking up passengers in unsafe areas and ensure that regulations are followed, Niwa director general Bola Oyebamiji also said that commercial passenger boats were only allowed to pick up travellers at places that were recognised and registered by the authority.But these are not new rules. They are all contained in the Water Transport Code, which was first passed in January 2023.
However many of its provisions are routinely ignored."The law requires that for any boat operating on a large body of water where someone cannot easily swim to shore, all passengers must wear life jackets," explained Timothy Iwuagwu, president of the Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria. "But these laws are hardly implemented. Any regulation is as good as its implementation."He also pointed to a lack of proper training: "The majority of these local boat operators are not trained nor licensed.
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