Boat Mishap in Niger State Claims 29 Lives, Dozens Still Missing
At least 29 people have been confirmed dead after a boat capsized on Tuesday morning in Gausawa community, Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.
The vessel, which was carrying about 90 passengers mostly women and children was headed to a neighbouring community for a condolence visit when it struck a tree stump around 11:30 a.m. and overturned.
Eyewitnesses reported that the boat was overloaded before the crash. Authorities also noted that none of the passengers had life jackets, a factor believed to have worsened the casualty figure.
“The passengers were obviously not wearing life jackets. If they had been, more if not all would have survived. Unfortunately, many people in Borgu refuse to use them for reasons best known to them,” a source told PUNCH.
So far, 29 bodies have been recovered, 50 passengers rescued alive, while two remain missing.
Confirming the incident, Abdullahi Baba-Arah, Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said that search and rescue efforts were still ongoing.
He said, “NSEMA has received a report of boat mishap incident at a community called Gausawa in Malale area/ward of Borgu LGA.
“According to our desk officer who led the search and rescue operations, the boat took off from a community called Tugan Sule in Shagunu ward with 90 people on board which includes women and children on the boat heading to Dugga for a condolence visit”
NSEMA DG added that, “The incident happened yesterday, 2nd September 2025 at about 11:30am and the cause was attributed to overloading and collision with a tree stomp.
“As at the time of filling this report 29 dead bodies have been recovered with 50 persons rescued alive while 2 people are still missing.
“Search and rescue operations are still on going for possible recovery of missing persons.”
This is the second boat accident in Niger State in 2025.
The first one happened in July and was attributed to tree stomp.
The National Inland Waterway Agency had distributed life jackets in Mokwa after the flood incident which killed over 200 people.
