16 migrants die in truck crash in Angola
2013-01-07 09:06
Luanda - Sixteen migrants from the Democratic Republic of
Congo died and three were seriously injured when the truck they were hiding in
flipped over on a road in Angola, regional police said on Sunday.
All 19 were undocumented immigrants and had been travelling
from the border post of Soyo to the capital Luanda when the accident occurred
in the northern town of N'zeto late Saturday.
"The truck was transporting cases of empty beer bottles
in a container where the migrants were hiding, and it flipped over,"
police chief Andre Massota of Zaire province told AFP.
"The victims died of injuries and asphyxiation,"
he said, adding that police needed at least two hours to open the container and
managed to save three people, including a 30-year-old woman, who all had
serious injuries.
Police said the migrants had paid the driver $200 for the
ride. The driver fled after the accident, Massota said.
Angola's Zaire province, which borders the DRC, has recently
seen a surge in undocumented migrants.
More than 30 migrants, most of whom came from the DRC, have
been driven back to the border in the past two weeks, according to local
officials.
- SAPA
