Get Guardian on Google• Niger leads as 700 died in boat accident in 18 years
No fewer than seven persons, including the paddler, have drowned after their canoe capsized in Sokoto State on Monday.
According to Zagazola Makama, a counter-insurgency publication, the victims were travelling from Gidan Hussaini to Sabon Garin Hussaini when the incident occurred.
Security operatives quickly responded to the scene, securing the area and restricting access to the riverside to manage the gathering of relatives.
The local rescue team was mobilised to retrieve the bodies, which were later handed over to the victims’ families for burial.
RELATEDLY, Niger State Emergency Management Agency (NSEMA) has revealed that over 700 persons had died in various boat mishaps in Niger State from 2007 to date.
The agency’s Director-General, Abdullahi Baba Arah, disclosed this during the NSEMA 2025 flood preparedness and response campaign stakeholders’ engagement with the theme: “Building Resilience and Capacity for Flood Management,” held in Minna, the state capital.
He said that the coordinated action plan to mitigate the effects of the flood disaster showed that eight local councils, consisting of 90 communities, had been identified as being at high risk of flooding between April and June this year in the state.
Arah, who was represented by the Director, Relief and Rehabilitation, Garba Salisu, said that between July and September 2025, about 105 communities from 17 local councils would experience very serious flooding, while between October and November, three local councils, consisting of 15 communities, would likely have a high risk flooding in the state.
The NSEMA boss said that the stakeholders’ engagement was aimed at harmonising all the action plans by each of the participants to ensure centralised operations devoid of duplications.
Meanwhile, the Guest Lecturer, Prof. Isah Idris of the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna, who spoke on “Roles of Stakeholders in Disaster and Risk Management,” advised that the resolutions reached on the action plans would go a long way in assisting to mitigate future occurrence of flood disaster in Niger State.
