Boat Carrying 166 Passengers Capsizes In Calabar.

The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has confirmed at least 45 people died when a wooden boat carrying 166 people from southeastern Nigeria capsized off the coast, a doctor said on Tuesday  National Mirror report.

The boat left on Friday from the town of Oron, in Akwa-Ibom state, and was heading across the Gulf of Guinea to Gabon, in central Africa, when it capsized 40 nautical miles offshore, emergency services and traders said.

The Assistant Director, Information, Cross River Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, Mr. David Akate, confirmed the incident, but did not give further details. Sources familiar with the situation told our reporter that the boat was carrying 166 passengers, adding that rescue efforts were still going on.
A marine transporter at the Calabar Inland Waterways, Mr. Ikechukwu Egwu, also confirmed the incident. He added that the two known survivors were a young boy and a woman who had clung to a gas cylinder and were rescued by fishermen.