عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

At Least 60 Dead in Nigeria Boat Accident

Nigerian Police officers deploy ahead of an anti government demonstration in Lagos, on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Olympia DE MAISMONT / AFP)
Nigerian Police officers deploy ahead of an anti government demonstration in Lagos, on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Olympia DE MAISMONT / AFP)
TT
TT

At Least 60 Dead in Nigeria Boat Accident

Nigerian Police officers deploy ahead of an anti government demonstration in Lagos, on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Olympia DE MAISMONT / AFP)
Nigerian Police officers deploy ahead of an anti government demonstration in Lagos, on October 1, 2024. (Photo by Olympia DE MAISMONT / AFP)

At least 60 people were killed after a boat carrying mostly women and children returning from a religious festival in Nigeria's northern Niger state capsized this week, a local official said.
About 160 people have now been rescued after the wooden boat ferrying nearly 300 passengers sank on Tuesday night on the River Niger around the Gbajibo Community, said Jibril Abdullahi Muregi, chairman of the Mokwa local government area.
The boat was returning to Gbajibo from Mundi after the annual Maulud celebration when disaster struck, Muregi said in a statement late on Wednesday
Rescue operations are still ongoing, he said.
It was not yet clear why the boat sank.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

Hungary’s Orban Blames Immigration and EU for Deadly Attack in Germany

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)
TT
TT

Hungary’s Orban Blames Immigration and EU for Deadly Attack in Germany

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban holds an international press conference in Budapest, Hungary, December 21, 2024. (Reuters)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday drew a direct link between immigration and an attack in Germany where a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least five people and injuring 200 others.

During a rare appearance before independent media in Budapest, Orban expressed his sympathy to the families of the victims of what he called the “terrorist act” on Friday night in the city of Magdeburg. But the long-serving Hungarian leader, one of the European Union's most vocal critics, also implied that the 27-nation bloc's migration policies were to blame.

German authorities said the suspect, a 50-year-old Saudi doctor, is under investigation. He has lived in Germany since 2006, practicing medicine and described himself as a former Muslim.

Orban claimed without evidence that such attacks only began to occur in Europe after 2015, when hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees entered the EU after largely fleeing war and violence in the Middle East and Africa.

Europe has in fact seen numerous militant attacks going back decades including train bombings in Madrid, Spain, in 2004 and attacks on central London in 2005.

Still, the nationalist leader declared that “there is no doubt that there is a link” between migration and terrorism, and claimed that the EU leadership “wants Magdeburg to happen to Hungary too.”

Orban’s anti-immigrant government has taken a hard line on people entering Hungary since 2015, and has built fences protected by razor wire on Hungary's southern borders with Serbia and Croatia.

In June, the European Court of Justice ordered Hungary to pay a fine of 200 million euros ($216 million) for persistently breaking the bloc’s asylum rules, and an additional 1 million euros per day until it brings its policies into line with EU law.

Orban, a right-wing populist who is consistently at odds with the EU, has earlier vowed that Hungary would not change its migration and asylum policies regardless of any rulings from the EU's top court.

On Saturday, he promised that his government will fight back against what he called EU efforts to “impose” immigration policies on Hungary.