At least 21 dead in ferry sinking in northern Sudan’s River Nile State

At least six people have been rescued, while efforts are ongoing to locate about a dozen people still missing, officials say.Published On 12 Feb 2026At least 21 people have drowned, while others remain missing, after a passenger ferry sank on the Nile in northern Sudan’s River Nile State, civil defence officials have said, in the war-ravaged nation.The Sudanese Sovereignty Council issued a press statement mourning the deaths of 21 people, including women and children.Police Major General Qurashi Hussein, Sudan’s assistant director general of civil defence, told Al Jazeera on Thursday that six or seven people had been rescued, while efforts were continuing to recover about a dozen people believed missing.The wooden passenger ferry had been carrying 30-35 passengers, including women, elderly people and children, when it sank on Wednesday evening while travelling between the villages of Tayba al-Khawad and Deim al-Qarai in River Nile State, Hussein said.Teams sent from capitalHussein added that teams had been sent from Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, to assist with the operation, with all civil defence teams in River Nile State being mobilised to search for the missing.“Our teams are still searching for bodies of those who drowned in the Nile,” he said.The Sudan-doctors-network" class="entity-link entity-organization" data-entity-id="2002" data-entity-type="organization">Sudan Doctors Network, an association of Sudanese medical professionals, said in a post on X that the tragedy highlighted “the fragility of river transport” in the country and “the absence of basic safety requirements”.It also claimed that a slow response from local authorities and civil defence teams in the critical initial hours following the sinking had “exacerbated the scale of the disaster”.