At least 19 people drowned when their boat sank in a river in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region on Saturday, according to the region’s official media on Sunday.
“Seven people including a child were saved in difficult circumstances,” the Amhara Media Corporation (AMC) reported, quoting a local administrator.
The boat was ferrying passengers across the Tekeze river, which runs along Ethiopia’s border with Eritrea before it crosses into Sudan at the juncture where the three countries meet.
Officials estimate that 26 people were aboard the boat at the time of the accident, which occurred around noon (0900 GMT) on Saturday.
AMC stated that only two bodies have been recovered so far, adding that the survivors had been taken to nearby hospitals for treatment.
Media access to remote northern Ethiopia is heavily restricted by the authorities, causing delays in the flow of information.
Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous region, has been plagued for months by clashes between the Ethiopian military and an ethnic Amhara militia known as Fano.
The region was also embroiled in the neighboring Tigray war, with its regional forces fighting alongside federal government troops against Tigrayan rebels.
This boat accident is the second major tragedy in Ethiopia in recent days. On Monday, a landslide in the southern part of the country claimed over 250 lives.
