A boat capsized in Nigeria's northwest Sokoto state, with around 40 bodies of children recovered so far, a local official at the inland waterways authority said on Thursday.
"I can confirm that so far around 40 corpses of children have been recovered," Abdulkadir Yusuf, an area manager of the National Inland Waterways Authority said in a statement to Reuters.
The accident occurred on Thursday morning when passengers, aboard the boat which is said to have been overloaded, were heading either to plant or to harvest rice, said Sarkin Daji, a traditional leader in the area.
"Our local divers recovered the bodies and the search is still ongoing," local resident Nasiru Gorau said.
In January, at least 25 people died when a leaking boat capsized in Yobe state, northeast Nigeria.
