Death toll rises to 42 after boat accident in central Nigeria

ABUJA -- The death toll of a boat accident earlier this week in Niger State in central Nigeria has risen to 42, as more bodies were recovered Friday, a local official said.

Abdullahi Baba-Arah, head of the State Emergency Management Agency, told reporters that at least 17 more bodies had been recovered since Thursday, six of them found early Friday.

At least 25 bodies were earlier confirmed to have been recovered after the boat carrying more than 300 passengers capsized on Tuesday night, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu's spokesman said on Thursday.

More than 150 others were rescued after the overloaded wooden boat flipped over on the River Niger upstream Jebba Dam in the Mokwa local government area late Tuesday, Bayo Onanuga, a senior presidential spokesman, said in a statement issued on behalf of Tinubu.

The victims were returning from a religious celebration in another community in Niger when the accident occurred, local authorities said in a separate statement issued earlier, noting mostly women and children were aboard the ill-fated boat. The exact cause of the accident is still under investigation.

Baba-Arah told the media Friday that the search and rescue operation was continuing to recover the still-missing victims.

Meanwhile, Tinubu has ordered the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to investigate the spate of boat accidents in Niger and across the country and devise modalities to check the trend.

The Nigerian leader also directed the NIWA to expand the scope of its surveillance of inland waters to ensure "people's safety and prosecute boat operators violating the ban on night sailing."

Boat accidents are common in Nigeria, often due to overloading, adverse weather conditions, and operational errors.