One Dead, More Than 40 Missing In Niger Boat Sinking

Rescuers, fishermen, navy experts and police combed the Niger River Thursday looking for 42 people, including children, missing after an overloaded boat capsized while bringing them to a market, authorities said.

The vessel foundered as it was battered by powerful winds in Sambera district in southwest Niger, near the border with Benin, early Wednesday morning, going down just 200 metres (656 feet) from its destination.

"Sixty-two people were saved and 43 others are missing, judging from the number of shoes that have been recovered," Sambera Mayor Oumarou Hassane told AFP.

The corpse of a woman was later recovered.

The victims had been aboard a canoe travelling from Gorou-Beri in Benin to Ouna in Niger, according to Hassane.

The vessel was transporting a large consignment of cereals and about a hundred traders from Benin and Niger, as well as children, Hassane said.

In Benin, Moussa Mouhamadou, prefect of the northern district of Alibori, gave a similar toll.

"Sixty-four people were saved," he told Radio Benin.

"We discovered about 40 pairs of shoes at the site (of the accident), and linked them to the people who are missing."

"The survivors went home last night and are well. They are being given medical and psychological support," said Mouhamadou.

Most of the passengers were from Benin, said the country's Interior Minister Sacca Lafia.

"In accordance with the law, the navigators of the vessel have been arrested for not following the safety instructions... We hope that this never happens again," he said.

Never again

The Niger River, a busy transport artery in West Africa, broke its banks about two weeks ago, causing major damage to crops. While the flooding has subsided, the river's level remains high.

An official of Niger's gendarmerie told public radio the canoe sank "about 200 metres (yards)" from the jetty it was headed for.

According to Mouhamadou, navy and police members and fishermen on the scene started the search for survivers survivors directly after the sinking, and divers from the fire brigade in the commercial capital, Cotonou, were making their way to the scene Thursday.

Boat capsizes are common on the Niger River, which carries hundreds of canoes every day. Many are operated by companies that ignore security standards.

Steering is "often given to teenagers to do," a Nigerian security source told AFP.

In October 2017, 17 people were confirmed drowned after a boat carrying about 60 passengers sank on a trip from northwestern Nigeria to Niger.

A month earlier, 56 people perished when an overcrowded boat carrying 150 people, mainly Niger traders, sank in the state of Kebbi, Nigeria.

Many of the passengers of these boats are merchants of livestock and grain traded between Niger, Benin, and Nigeria.

There are only three bridges spanning the river along the 550-kilometre (342-mile) stretch of its flow through Niger, a poor, landlocked country that depends heavily on imports from the port of Cotonou.