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21 July 2023
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Fiery Algeria bus crash kills 34 in remote Sahara region
At least 34 people were killed when an Algerian passenger bus collided head-on with a commercial vehicle and burst into flames in the country's southern desert on Wednesday, 19 July 2023. One of the North African country's deadliest road crashes in years also left 12 others injured, many with burn wounds, Algeria's Civil Defence agency said.
It said they suffered serious burns.
Provincial officials also arrived at the site of the accident to oversee rescue operations.
Local residents reported by phone that the bus had dropped off passengers and was about to resume its journey when a Toyota pickup truck smashed into it.
National gendarmerie official Samir Bouchehit said the truck was carrying cans of gasoline and driving on the wrong side of the road. "The first elements of the investigation suggest that the responsibility lies with the driver of the pickup, which was loaded with cans of gasoline that caught fire in the collision," he said, speaking on the private Ennahar TV channel. The number of passengers in the pickup was not clear but they and the driver, were killed, Bouchehit added. Residents said the bus driver also perished.
Health Minister Abdelhak Saihi travelled to the accident site, promising "all the necessary measures for the care of the injured", a ministry statement said.
The Civil Defence Agency said the bus was travelling between Tamanrasset, a town of 150 000 people, and Adrar to the northwest, with about 65 000 residents.
Mohamed Boudraa, the governor of Tamanrasset, visited the local hospital where the 12 injured were being treated, the official APS news agency reported. Three of them were later released from the hospital, its director Abdelkader Bika said.
Officials in Algeria, an oil producer, regularly announce seizures in the Tamanrasset area of large amounts of contraband fuel destined for neighbouring countries.
Algeria recorded nearly 23 000 road accidents in 2022, leaving 3 409 people dead and more than 30 000 injured, according to the country's road safety chief Nacef Abdelhakim. Speed was the main cause, according to the state road safety agency.
Tamanrasset is a transport hub in the remote desert region for the movement of people and goods from Algeria's far south to the coastal north. The region, near the borders of Mali and Niger, is also a transit point for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa hoping to reach Europe via Algeria.
In December 2020, a vehicle crash near Tamanrasset killed 20 people and injured 11 others, most of them African migrants.
Other countries in the region also see thousands of road deaths annually. About 7 000 people lost their lives on the roads of Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, in 2020, according to official figures. Sudan recorded around 10 000 annual traffic fatalities between 2016 and 2019, according to the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.
There was no official comment on the accident. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is currently in China for a state visit.
Sources: Associated Press, France 24
It said they suffered serious burns.
Provincial officials also arrived at the site of the accident to oversee rescue operations.
Local residents reported by phone that the bus had dropped off passengers and was about to resume its journey when a Toyota pickup truck smashed into it.
National gendarmerie official Samir Bouchehit said the truck was carrying cans of gasoline and driving on the wrong side of the road. "The first elements of the investigation suggest that the responsibility lies with the driver of the pickup, which was loaded with cans of gasoline that caught fire in the collision," he said, speaking on the private Ennahar TV channel. The number of passengers in the pickup was not clear but they and the driver, were killed, Bouchehit added. Residents said the bus driver also perished.
Health Minister Abdelhak Saihi travelled to the accident site, promising "all the necessary measures for the care of the injured", a ministry statement said.
The Civil Defence Agency said the bus was travelling between Tamanrasset, a town of 150 000 people, and Adrar to the northwest, with about 65 000 residents.
Mohamed Boudraa, the governor of Tamanrasset, visited the local hospital where the 12 injured were being treated, the official APS news agency reported. Three of them were later released from the hospital, its director Abdelkader Bika said.
Officials in Algeria, an oil producer, regularly announce seizures in the Tamanrasset area of large amounts of contraband fuel destined for neighbouring countries.
Algeria recorded nearly 23 000 road accidents in 2022, leaving 3 409 people dead and more than 30 000 injured, according to the country's road safety chief Nacef Abdelhakim. Speed was the main cause, according to the state road safety agency.
Tamanrasset is a transport hub in the remote desert region for the movement of people and goods from Algeria's far south to the coastal north. The region, near the borders of Mali and Niger, is also a transit point for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa hoping to reach Europe via Algeria.
In December 2020, a vehicle crash near Tamanrasset killed 20 people and injured 11 others, most of them African migrants.
Other countries in the region also see thousands of road deaths annually. About 7 000 people lost their lives on the roads of Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, in 2020, according to official figures. Sudan recorded around 10 000 annual traffic fatalities between 2016 and 2019, according to the World Health Organisation and the World Bank.
There was no official comment on the accident. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is currently in China for a state visit.
Sources: Associated Press, France 24
