Five dead, one missing after river boat capsizes in Nigeria's Benue State

Nigeria has repeatedly come under scrutiny for its poor passenger vessel safety record.

Earlier this year, ferry safety advocate and Baird Maritime Co-Founder Dr Neil Baird wrote that seven passenger vessel incidents in Nigeria in 2025 resulted in 292 deaths, while in 2024, 423 fatalities were recorded from 13 incidents in the country's waters. These figures make Nigeria second only to the Democratic Republic of the Congo by total number of deaths from passenger vessel incidents.

"The main factor that seems to be saving Nigerians from fates as bad as their Congolese brethren is that they tend to travel on smaller ferries," Dr Baird wrote in 2025.