Boat capsizes in northwestern Nigeria, leaving dozens of people dead

SOKOTO, Nigeria -- A boat capsized Thursday in a river in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto state, leaving more than 40 people dead, officials and residents said.

The boat was carrying people who were heading to farms for work in Gorau town in the Goronyo local government area of the state.

Samaila Garba, 55, said his 13-year-old granddaughter, Jamila Usman, was among those who died in the capsizing. He said he had counted 42 bodies of victims, most of them women and children.

Abdulkadir Yusuf, Sokoto state manager at ​the National Inland Waterways Authority, confirmed the deadly accident and said the death toll was 47.