At least 13 people have drowned and 22 still unaccounted for when an overcrowded boat filled with fleeing residents from gunmen suspected to be bandits capsized.
Reuters reported that the assailants stormed two communities in Birnin Magaji ward on Friday afternoon, sending locals fleeing toward a nearby riverbank that had a single boat.
“My eldest son and two other nieces were among the 13 people who died when the boat was heavily overloaded with people,” Shehu Mohammed, a health worker in Birnin Magaji, told Reuters.
Maidamma Dankilo, the district head of Birnin Magaji, said 13 people from the boat had been confirmed dead, 22 had been rescued and 22 others were still missing.
Gunmen killed at least two people and abducted more than 100 last weekend in an attack some 150 km (95 miles) west of Birnin Magaji.
Rescue
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, handed over 128 rescued kidnap victims from Zamfara State to their families in Abuja.
The victims, comprising males, females and children, were rescued by security forces in two different operations in Kaura Namoda in Zamfara State.
Ribadu said the victims would be treated for trauma and helped to settle down in their communities.
The NSA, while commending security forces, assured that the perpetrators would be hunted and brought to justice.
“Let us take politics out of security challenges,” he warned.
Earlier, the National Coordinator, National Counter Terrorism Centre, Major General Adamu Laka, said one of the rescued children died due to illness while a premature baby delivered during the rescue operation was being incubated in a medical facility.
