ABUJA (Reuters) – At least 10 people have died and another 60 are missing after a boat capsized in Nigeria’s southeastern Anambra state, officials said on Saturday.
The vessel with 85 people on board capsized amid heavy flooding, trapping the passengers, Thickman Tanimu, zonal coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency, told Reuters.
Anambra state governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo said in a statement that 10 people had drowned. The head of Anambra State Emergency Management Agency said 15 people had been rescued as of Saturday evening.
The incident happened between 11 a.m. (1000 GMT) and noon on Friday, the agency said.
Tanimu said some of the passengers were trapped by the floods and called for a boat to evacuate them. He said a military disaster response unit from the Nigerian army was assisting the search effort.
Anambra is one of 29 of Nigeria’s 36 states to have experienced heavy flooding this year. The waters have washed away homes, crops and roads and have impacted at least half a million people.
Farmers say the rising waters will push food bills higher in a nation where millions have fallen into food poverty in the past two years.
(Reporting By Camillus Eboh in Abuja and Hamza Ibrahim in Kano; Writing by Libby George; Editing by Mike Harrison)
