Morocco: 24 people were killed in one of the deadliest road accidents ever in central Morocco’s Ajilal province on Sunday. Local officials said a minibus carrying passengers to the weekly market in Demnet town overturned at a turn.
At least 24 people were killed in one of the deadliest road accidents ever in central Morocco’s Ajilal province on Sunday. Local officials said a minibus carrying passengers to the weekly market in Demnet town overturned at a turn. He said that investigation has been started.
Accidents are frequent on the roads of Morocco and other North African countries, with thousands of road deaths occurring annually. In March, 11 people, mostly agricultural workers, were killed when a minibus crashed into a tree in the rural town of Brachoa, local officials said.
Many poor citizens use coaches and minibuses to travel in rural areas. In August last year, 23 people were killed and 36 others injured when a bus overturned at a bend in Morocco’s financial capital, Casablanca.
According to the National Road Safety Agency, there are an average of 3,500 road deaths and 12,000 injuries annually in Morocco, 10 deaths per day. Last year the figure was around 3,200. Authorities have set a target of halving the death rate by 2026 since 42 people were killed in the worst bus crash in the country’s history in 2012.
In neighboring Algeria, 34 people were killed in a head-on collision between a passenger bus and a pickup truck carrying fuel cans in the southern Sahara region on July 19. Algeria’s civil defense agency said 12 others were injured, many with serious burns, in the deadliest road accident in years in the North African country. National Gendarmerie officer Samir Bouchehit said the truck was carrying petrol cans and was traveling on the wrong side of the road.
Libya’s roads are ranked among the deadliest in the world. Libya’s Interior Ministry’s traffic department recorded 4,115 road accidents across the country in 2018, killing 2,500 and injuring over 3,000.
