About 29 people have been confirmed dead in a boat accident that occurred on Tuesday in Niger State.

The incident happened in Gausawa Community in Borgu Local Council at about 11:30 a.m.

The boat was loaded with 90 people, including women and children who were going on a condolence visit in another community.

The cause of the accident was attributed to overloading and a collision with a tree stump.

An anonymous source in the Ministry of Transport disclosed that the passengers were not wearing life jackets; otherwise, more people would have been rescued.

“The passengers were obviously not wearing life jackets. If they were, more, if not all of them, would have survived the accident.

“Borgu is very far, and a lot of these passengers do not like to wear the life jackets for reasons best known to them,” the source said.

As of the time of filing this report, 29 corpses had been recovered, with 50 people rescued alive, while two people are said to be missing.

The Director-General (DG) of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, Abdullahi Baba-Arah, confirmed the accident, saying the search and rescue operation was still ongoing.

He said: “NSEMA has received a report of a boat mishap at a community called Gausawa, in Malale area/ward of Borgu Local Council.

“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, including women and children, heading to Dugga for a condolence visit.”

The NSEMA DG added that the incident happened on Tuesday, September 2, 2025, at about 11:30 a.m., and the cause was attributed to overloading and collision with a tree stump.