<p>Kaduna: Dozens of people were feared dead after a boat carrying mostly women and children returning from a religious festival capsized in northern Nigeria, a local emergency official and residents said on Wednesday.</p><p>The accident happened around 8:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) on Tuesday when the wooden boat packed with nearly 300 passengers sank in the River Niger, Abdullahi Baba Arah, head of Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said.</p><p>Rescue workers and volunteers from Niger's rural Mokwa local government area had rescued 150 people, he added.</p>.Over 80 killed in boat accident in western Congo. <p>"The search and rescue operation is still ongoing to locate more survivors," Arah said in a statement.</p><p>Ismaila Umar, who leads an association of boat skippers in Mokwa, told Reuters that chances of finding survivors were slim.</p><p>This would be the second such major disaster in Niger state in 18 months after more than 100 people were killed in another boat accident.</p><p>Overcrowding and poor maintenance are responsible for most boat accidents on Nigerian waterways.</p>
<p>Kaduna: Dozens of people were feared dead after a boat carrying mostly women and children returning from a religious festival capsized in northern Nigeria, a local emergency official and residents said on Wednesday.</p><p>The accident happened around 8:30 p.m. (1930 GMT) on Tuesday when the wooden boat packed with nearly 300 passengers sank in the River Niger, Abdullahi Baba Arah, head of Niger State Emergency Management Agency, said.</p><p>Rescue workers and volunteers from Niger's rural Mokwa local government area had rescued 150 people, he added.</p>.Over 80 killed in boat accident in western Congo. <p>"The search and rescue operation is still ongoing to locate more survivors," Arah said in a statement.</p><p>Ismaila Umar, who leads an association of boat skippers in Mokwa, told Reuters that chances of finding survivors were slim.</p><p>This would be the second such major disaster in Niger state in 18 months after more than 100 people were killed in another boat accident.</p><p>Overcrowding and poor maintenance are responsible for most boat accidents on Nigerian waterways.</p>