1 month ago
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By Musa Ubandawaki, SOKOTO
Fear and grief person erstwhile again gripped Sokoto State pursuing the decease of respective villagers successful a vessel mishap successful Sabon Birni Local Government Area, arsenic they fled for information from a caller question of Lakurawa terrorists attack.
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The Sokoto State Police Command connected Saturday confirmed the incident.
The Police disclosed that hunt and rescue operations are ongoing to retrieve the bodies of victims inactive missing.
Officials, however, noted that the nonstop fig of passengers aboard the ill-fated vessel was yet to beryllium ascertained.
According to eyewitness accounts, the victims were hopeless villagers who had taken to the waterways successful a frantic effort to flight from marauding bandits.
But their overloaded vessel capsized midway, plunging them into the river.
This latest mishap marks the 4th fatal vessel mishap successful little than 2 months, raising alarm implicit the increasing humanitarian toll of insecurity and unsafe h2o transport successful the state.
Residents of Sabon Birni and neighboring communities person continued to unrecorded nether siege, with transgression gangs and Lakurawa insurgents unleashing relentless assaults killing, abducting, and displacing scores of villagers.
Despite repeated authorities assurances, the bandits stay entrenched successful galore parts of the state, mounting checkpoints, burning farmlands, and forcing agrarian dwellers into wide exodus.
The prime of Sabon Birni arsenic the backdrop of this latest catastrophe is peculiarly symbolic, arsenic the country is the birthplace of the state’s Deputy Governor, Idris Muhammad Gobir.
Locals accidental this lone underscores the extent of insecurity that spares nary community, careless of governmental prominence.
The recurring tragedies connected Sokoto’s waterways person drawn crisp disapproval from civilian nine and assemblage leaders, who impeach authorities of failing to code some the information menace and the recurring transport hazards that person present claimed dozens of guiltless lives.
Security experts pass that unless urgent and coordinated measures are taken, Sokoto risks sinking deeper into a rhythm of bloodshed, displacement, and avoidable disasters.
For now, families of the Sabon Birni victims hold successful anguish by the riverbanks arsenic divers and rescue teams hunt for their loved ones galore of whom whitethorn ne'er instrumentality alive.
The station Scores fleeing Lakurawa terrorists drown successful Sokoto vessel accident appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.
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