Twenty one people fleeing from terror unleashed by gunmen on Rabah Local Government Area of Sokoto State have drowned in a boat mishap. Twelve others were rescued following the Thursday accident.
The 33 had boarded the boat from the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp at Gandi community for Gidan Kare village when it overturned in strong currents.
Local divers have recovered the corpses of the victims, the Director-General of the Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Mr. Ibrahim Dingyadi, said yesterday.
Dingyadi said the victims were Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from a camp where people who escaped a recent gunmen attack in the state were settled.
He attributed the mishap to overloading. The SEMA chief said that no sooner had council officials reported the incident than the agency set out to rescue the victims. He said the victims were mainly women and children and that the dead people among them had since been buried.
The director-general advised boat operators in the state to desist from over-loading their boats to prevent unnecessary deaths. Dingyagi said the agency had put measures in place to prevent such incidents in future.
Thousands of the villagers fled to the makeshift camp in Gandi town after bandits attacked their village during which 32 people were killed and dozens of homes burnt.