Officials reported on Wednesday that a boat overturned in western Nigeria, leaving at least 150 persons missing.
The incident happened late on Tuesday night in Nigeria’s Mokwa region, according to Abdullahi Baba, director general of Niger state’s emergency service.
About 300 people, according to Baba, were on their way to attend a yearly religious event for Muslims in the boat. More survivors are being sought out by rescue operations, he said.
Less than two weeks after the bloodiest incident of this year, eight migrants perished on September 15 when their overcrowded boat capsized while attempting to cross the English Channel from France to England, according to French authorities.
According to a regional official, 46 migrants have died this year while trying to enter England from France, up from 12 in 2023, as a result of the most recent disaster.
The governments of France and Britain have been attempting for years to halt the migrant flow, with migrants paying traffickers hundreds of euros per person to travel on overcrowded inflatable dinghies.
Similar to this, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and local sources said that in July, a boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of Mauritania, leaving at least 15 migrants dead and dozens more missing.
