Int’l Desk:

At least 19 people drowned when their boat sank in a river in Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region on Saturday, the region’s official media said on Sunday.

“Seven people including a child were saved in difficult circumstances,” the Amhara Media Corporation (AMC) added, quoting a local administrator.

The boat was taking passengers across the Tekeze river, which runs along Ethiopia’s border with Eritrea before it crosses into Sudan at the point where the three countries meet.

Twenty six people were estimated to have been on board at the time of the accident at around noon local time on Saturday, officials said.

Only two bodies had been recovered, AMC said, adding that those rescued had been taken to nearby hospitals.

Media access to the remote northern Ethiopia is heavily restricted by the authorities, with information often trickling in hours later.

Amhara — Ethiopia’s second most populous region — has been wracked for months by clashes between the Ethiopian military and an ethnic Amhara militia known as Fano.

It was also caught up in the neighbouring region Tigray’s war, with its regional forces fighting alongside federal government troops against Tigrayan rebels.