At least 40 people are killed in one of the deadliest traffic accidents in Senegal in recent years. The President orders national mourning. A road accident on the Kenya-Uganda border kills 21 people on the same day.
40 people died in a serious traffic accident in Senegal. According to a fire department official, almost 90 people were injured when two buses collided near the city of Kaffrine in the center of the West African country. According to the information, the accident occurred at night on the N1 trunk road. The injured were taken to hospitals.
The country’s president ordered a three-day national mourning on Sunday. “I am deeply saddened by today’s tragic traffic accident in Gniby, which killed 40 people and seriously injured many,” Macky Sall wrote on Twitter. He expressed his condolences to the families of those affected.
National mourning should apply in the West African coastal country from Monday, Sall wrote in another tweet. There should also be a ministerial meeting to discuss road safety. Traffic accidents are common in Senegal. According to experts, this is mainly due to bad roads and dilapidated vehicles. The accident on Sunday is nevertheless one of the deadliest in recent years.
Meanwhile, 21 people died in a serious traffic accident on the border between Uganda and Kenya. Another 49 people were injured after a bus ran off the road and rammed into a parked truck in the border town of Lwakhakha, a Ugandan police spokesman said. The bus driver apparently lost control of the vehicle, he added.
“Initial findings indicate that this is a case of excessive speed,” said the spokesman. The bus was therefore on the way from the eastern Ugandan city of Mbale to the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The fatalities were mostly Kenyans, but eight Ugandans were also killed, it said.
Faced with an increase in fatal traffic accidents in the East African country, the Ugandan government recently announced new measures to improve safety on the country’s roads.