By Mo Hanif
It was another dark Thursday morning in Sokoto State as tragedy struck the people of Garin Faji in Sabon Birni Local Government Area. At least six people lost their lives and three remain missing after a canoe carrying terrified villagers capsized while they desperately fled from a bandit attack.
According to eyewitness accounts, the residents had rushed to the riverbank in panic following intelligence of an imminent raid by heavily armed gunmen. In a desperate attempt to cross to safety, dozens boarded an already overcrowded canoe which later overturned midstream.
The Sokoto State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), in collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), and the Red Cross, confirmed the casualties and said 19 survivors were rescued from the water. Officials are still combing the river in search of the missing.
This heartbreaking incident comes barely six days after four people drowned in a similar boat mishap in Goronyo LGA under the same circumstances—villagers running from marauding bandits.
A resident who witnessed the chaos said:
> “People were too scared to wait. Everyone wanted to escape at once. That was why the boat capsized. We are tired of burying our people.”
The growing humanitarian crisis in Sokoto’s rural communities has become unbearable. Villagers now spend nights in the bush for safety and risk dangerous river crossings just to survive.
In response, the state government said it has deployed Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and reinforced security presence in the troubled areas. However, locals argue that these measures are reactive and arrive only after lives have been lost.
The Sokoto tragedies highlight the double jeopardy of insecurity and displacement that residents now endure—caught between the bullets of bandits on one side and the perils of unsafe waters on the other.
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