33 dead in Sudan bus collision
2012-12-20 14:33
Khartoum - Thirty-three people were killed and 24 injured
when two inter-city buses collided in Sudan late Wednesday, in one of the
country's worst road accidents in years, police said.
The crash between a full-sized passenger bus and a minibus
occurred near the small community of El Kamlien, about halfway between Khartoum
and Wad Medani.
"The minibus tried to overtake another vehicle and then
collided with the bus," which was travelling in the opposite direction, a
police statement said.
Deadly road accidents, often involving buses, are relatively
common in Sudan, where driving skills are poor.
The latest follows complaints by city bus drivers in
Khartoum that Sudan's surging inflation and sinking currency have driven
maintenance costs out of control.
In October, 13 people died and 26 were injured when a
passenger bus blew a tyre and collided with a minibus on the road to Wad Medani
southeast of the capital, official media reported at the time.
Twenty-one people died in April 2009 when a bus and a truck
collided south of Khartoum.
