By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
June 1,2024
A boat carrying 25 people sank while crossing a river in eastern Afghanistan on June 1, officials of the country’s Taliban-led government said.
Quraishi Badlon, director of the Information and Culture Department in Nangarhar Province, said the boat sank on a river in the Mohmand Dara district, killing 20 people, including women and children.
Moulvi Mohammad Ajmal Shagwal, the district governor of the Taliban-led government in Mohmand Dara, told RFE/RL that nine bodies had been removed from the river with help from local residents.
He said that there were 25 people on board the boat, which sank at 7:30 a.m. local time. Ten people survived, all of them with injuries, he said.
Badlon also said the boat was carrying 25 people, but he said only five survived.
Shagwal said there were women and children on the boat, but he did not give details. According to the province’s Public Health Department, the bodies recovered thus far include those of a man, a woman, two boys, and a girl.
Sherzad Ahmad Khel, one of the survivors, said that the boat sank because too many people were on board.
The government’s Bakhtar news agency published a video message in which an official said many people got into the boat, and when it reached the middle of the river, its motor overheated and burst into flames. The boat then flooded and sank, leaving its passengers to fend for themselves.
District resident Abdul Majeed told RFE/RL that people had used the same boat to cross the river almost every day to get to work and shop in the district market. He stressed that a bridge should be built.
“It is very important to build a bridge here. We asked the previous government, but it was not built. We are still demanding that the government build a bridge for us. If the bridge is not built, similar incidents will happen.”
People of Mohmand Dara and other districts of Nangarhar use small boats to cross the river due to the lack of bridges.
A few years ago, a number of people died in a similar boat sinking incident in district.
With reporting by AP