A boat headed for market laden with merchandise and vendors capsized in the Niger River in Mali, claiming about a dozen lives, authorities said Monday.
The victims had been on their way Sunday to a weekly market in Markala, in central Mali, where people from surrounding villages sell and buy goods. The boat sank about five kilometres from its destination, the transport ministry said in a statement, blaming overloading.The ministry spoke of nine dead and six survivors, but a Markala official said more had lost their lives, including a child of about six months.
“The craft was overloaded,” added Abdoulaye Saye, a local councillor. “There was too much merchandise” which the occupants of the boat had planned on selling at the market.