Boat engine explosion kills at least 20 in southern Nigeria

The engine of a wooden boat exploded and sank in a river in southern Nigeria, killing at least 20 people, local police said Thursday.

The explosion and sinking on the Ezetu 1 River a day earlier was the latest in a series of deadly boat accidents that increasingly point to regulatory failures.

It was unclear what might have caused the boat’s engine to explode Wednesday, Musa Muhammed, spokesperson for the Bayelsa police, said.

The boat was carrying traders from Ekeni, a small community in the state of Bayelsa to Yenagoa, the state's capital city, when the engine exploded, Ipigansi Ogoniba, chair of the Maritime Workers Union in Bayelsa, said at a news conference. An ensuing fire burned some of the passengers before sinking, he said.

Ogoniba said emergency service providers could not respond quickly to the accident, because there is no telephone network in the area.

Boat disasters have become rampant in remote communities across Nigeria, where locals desperate to get their farm products to market end up overcrowded in locally made boats in the absence of good and accessible roads.

There is no record of the total number of deaths in these accidents, though there were at least five involving at least 100 passengers each in the second half of last year.

Past accidents have been blamed on overloading, the condition of the boat or a hindrance of the boat’s movement along the water. Intervention measures announced by authorities — such as the provision of life jackets or enforcing of waterway regulations — are usually not carried out.