Twenty one persons, including a one-year-old child, from the internally displaced persons’ camp at Gandi in Sokoto State, yesterday died in a boat mishap.
They were said to be returning to their village at Gidan Kare in the early hours of yesterday when the incident happened.
It was gathered that the boat capsized while carrying about 40 passengers, most of whom were victims of the recent bandits’ attack.
The chairman of the state committee on IDPs, Alhaji Ibrahim Magaji Gusau, confirmed the incident.
“21 of them have been buried, 11 survived. They packed the things we gave them such as food stuff and mattresses, and were going back to their villages when the boat capsized,” he explained.
The committee chairman added: “Because of the load they were carrying and about 40 of them, it was too heavy I think, that’s why the boat capsized.”
According to him, the river is about one and half kilometers to the bank.
“The ones that survived climbed the mattresses they carried and that was what saved them,” he said.
The oldest of the victims was about 45 years old; and the youngest, one-year-old.
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