At least 40 people have been reported dead and 87 injured after two buses collided near Kaffrine in central Senegal.
The accident happened on the Number 1 national road at 3:15 am on Sunday.
Senegalese president, President Macky Sall said 40 people were killed in the “grave” accident and has declared a three days national mourning.
The fire brigade stated that the bus, which has a seating capacity of 60, was traveling to Rosso close to the Mauritania border and that it was unclear how many people were on board.
“It was a serious accident,” Colonel Cheikh Fall, head of operations at the National Fire Brigade, told AFP news agency, adding that 87 people were injured in the incident.
Victims were taken to a hospital and medical center in Kaffrine, he said. The wreckage and demolished buses have since been cleared and normal traffic has resumed, said Fall.
Early investigations, according to public prosecutor Cheikh Dieng, indicated that the accident occurred when “a bus assigned to the public transport of passengers, following the bursting of a tyre, left its trajectory before colliding head-on with another bus coming in the opposite direction.”
“I am deeply saddened by the tragic road accident,” President Sall said on Twitter. “I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” he added.
According to experts, this is one of the highest death tolls from a single incident in recent years in a country where road accidents are common due to a lack of driver discipline, poor roads, and aging vehicles.
In October 2020, at least 16 people were killed and 15 more injured when a bus collided with a refrigerated lorry in western Senegal. Local media said at the time that the lorry was hauling fish to Dakar.
Source: Aljazeera news
